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Personal Recollections 
of the Civil War 



BY ONE WHO TOOK PART IN IT AS A PRIVATE 
SOLDIER IN THE 21ST VOLUNTEER REGIMENT 
OF INFANTRY FROM MASSACHUSETTS :: :: :: 



BY 

JAMES MADISON STONE 

1 1 




BOSTON, MASS., MDCCCCXVIII 
PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR 









Copyright, 191 8 
By James Madison Stone 

.1// rights reserved 



MAR 29 1918 



©CI.A494359 



To the memory of the soldiers of the 21st 
egiment, and to their loyal descendants, living 
dead, this volume is affectionately dedicated 
/ 

The Author. 
Boston, 1 918. 



PREFACE 

THIS volume does, not claim to be a 
tactical, or strategic history of the 
campaigns of which it treats; it aims 
rather to be a narrative of the every-day life 
and experience of the private soldier in camp 
and field — how he lived, how he marched, 
how he fought and how he suffered. No sooner 
had some of the volunteers reached the front, 
and been subjected to the hardships and expo- 
sures of army life, than they fell sick, were sent 
to the hospital and were discharged without 
passing through any serious campaigns. Others 
were wounded early, were disabled and were 
never able to return to their regiments. The 
more fortunate passed sound and unscathed 
through battle after battle and campaign after 
campaign through the whole war. Three years 
of active campaigning and a year in the hospital 
was the allotment of the writer, who thus was 
in the service from the beginning to the end 
of the war. 

Whatever the merits or demerits of this work 
may be, the impressions and the composition 
are my own. They are an elaboration of notes 
made during the war and directly after it, 
following which, it has taken the form of a diary. 

5 



PREFACE 

The part of the work which has been least 
interesting, consumed more time and required 
some research, has been in fixing the dates 
when the different incidents occurred, they 
having passed entirely from memory long ago. 
With these few words, the work is submitted 
by the writer to his comrades of those four 
eventful and trying years, when the life of the 
Republic hung in the balance, in the hope that 
it may be an aid in calling to mind fading 
recollections of pleasant incidents, as well as 
heroic deeds performed by comrades. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I 
Learning to be a Soldier .... 9 

Leaving Camp Lincoln for the front. At Baltimore, Maryland. Can- 
taloupes and Peaches. Annapolis, Maryland, Chesapeake Bay oysters. 
Assisting negroes to escape. Doing picket duty on the railroad. A Negro 
husking. Chaplain Ball arrives from Massachusetts. Assigned to the 
2d Brigade, 2d Division, 9th Army Corps. 



CHAPTER II 
The North Carolina Campaign . . 27 

On shipbound. Burial at sea. At Hatteras Inlet. Battle of Roanoke 
Island. Battle of Newbern. Reading Johnnies ' love letters. Athletics. 
Battle of Camden. Went to the relief of the 2d Maryland. 

CHAPTER III 
In Virginia under General Pope . . 53 

A ride in the Confederate doctor's "One horse Chaise. " Living off the 
country. Learning the distance to Germania Ford. The Second Battle 
of Bull Run. The Battle of Chantilly. 

CHAPTER IV 
With McClellan in Maryland ... 83 

The Barbara Fretchie Incident. The Battle of South Mountain. 
Death of General Reno. The Battle of Antietam. Clara Barton. Presi- 
dent Lincoln visits the army. Visited a farmhouse very near a Con 
federate Camp. 

CHAPTER V 
The Fredericksburg Campaign . . .101 

A hard race for a pig. Chaplain Ball returns home. Picket duty along 
the river. The Battle of Fredericksburg. Burying the dead. Christmas 
revels with the Confederates. A band of horn-blowers. A raid on the 
sutler. A costume ball at Hotel de Ville. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER VI 
Playing Soldier in Kentucky . . .127 

Our breakfast at Baltimore. The trip west. The Reception at Mt. 
Sterling. Moved into the town. 

CHAPTER VII 

The Campaign in Tennessee . . .137 

We crossed the Cumberland Range. The patient mule. Seeing a 
railroad engine with a train of cars make a dive. The siege of Knoxville. 
Will you lend me my Nigger Colonel. Re-enlistment. Recrossed the 
Mountains, returning to Kentucky on the way home, on our re-enlistment 
furlough. 

CHAPTER VIII 
Home on a Re-enlistment Furlough . 155 

The trip home. Reception at Worcester. The Social Whirl. We 
returned to Annapolis. 

CHAPTER IX 
With Grant in Virginia . . . .159 

The Battle of the Wilderness. The Battle of Spotsylvania Court- 
house. Johnnies caught un-dressed. The Battle of Bethseda Church. 
The Johnnie who wanted to see the sun rise. Life in the trenches during 
the siege of Petersburg. Wounded. 

CHAPTER X 
Life in the Hospital 182 

That ride in the ambulance. Emory Hospital. The woman with my 
Mother 's name. The dreadful death rate. President Lincoln 's Second 
Inauguration. Booth's Ride. Doing clerical work in Philadelphia. 
Discharged. 



Chapter I 
LEARNING TO BE A SOLDIER 

Leaving Camp Lincoln for the front. At Baltimore, Maryland. Can - 
taloupes and Peaches. Annapolis, Maryland. Chesapeake Bay oysters. 
Assisting negroes to escape. Doing picket duty on the railroad. A Negro 
husking. Chaplain Ball arrives from Massachusetts. Assigned to the 
2d Brigade, 2d Division, 9th Army Corps. 

DURING the winter of i860 and 1861 
there was great uneasiness felt in the 
North. The South, through the demo- 
cratic party, had been the ruling section of the 
country most of the time since the establish- 
ment of the Republic, but at the time of the 
election in the autumn of i860 a northern politi- 
cal party had won. That party was not only a 
northern party, but it was an abolition party. 
The election of an abolition president, Mr. Lin- 
coln, by the North, was at once regarded as a 
menace to the slave holding interests of the 
South, which section at once began to make 
preparations to withdraw from the Union. 
As the spring months passed and Mr. Lincoln, 
the new president, took his seat, secession was 
more and more talked about. Soon the 6th 
Massachusetts Regiment was attacked in Balti- 
more. Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor was 
fired upon. Battalion after battalion of the 
state militia were being hurried away south for 
the protection of the Capitol. It thus became 

9 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

more and more apparent that there was to be 
war, and the all-important question from the 
northern viewpoint was, the preservation of the 
Union. One Sunday in the month of June I went 
home to visit my family, I being at the time at 
work away from home, and while there, quietly 
asked my mother what she would say if I should 
enlist. Well, that question produced a shock, 
and was not answered as quietly as it was asked. 
I was told I could not enlist without her consent, 
which she should not give, and I was heartily 
laughed at by my brothers and sisters. How- 
ever, when it became known that a company 
was being recruited at Barre, I went quietly 
over there and enlisted, then I went home and 
told the family what I had done. There was 
a rumpus, of course, but it passed off, and after 
a few days, hearing nothing from the company, 
I decided to go back to work again and await 
developments. On the 2 2d I learned that 
the company was going into camp at Worcester 
the next day. I was on hand and went along. 
A number of stage-coaches were provided to 
take us to Worcester. It was an interesting 
and picturesque ride of a little more than 
twenty miles. Arriving in Worcester early in 
the afternoon, we went to the Agricultural Fair 
Grounds, which had been converted into a 
campground and named Camp Lincoln from 

10 



LEARNING TO BE A SOLDIER 

Levi Lincoln, the first mayor of Worcester 
and a Governor of Massachusetts, and set to 
work putting up tents and forming a company 
street. Sleeping in tents, drilling and doing 
guard duty seemed strange at first, and was 
a good deal of a change from the duties of a 
farmer's boy, but it was interesting to be among 
a lot of live young men who were brimful of 
enthusiasm, patriotism and fun. 

When I joined the company at Barre, I was 
surprised to discover a number of Dana boys 
there: Henry Billings, Henry Haskins, German 
Lagara, Gil Warner and Harding Witt. Hard- 
ing Witt and I had been schoolmates and good 
friends for a number of years, so I was especially 
glad to find Harding there. Reveille was 
sounded at five o'clock. Most of the boys did 
not find it difficult to get up at that time but a 
few of those boys made the greatest ado about 
getting up on the minute. They were very 
likely boys who had always been called by 
loving mothers and had been called two or 
three times every morning. A quarter of an 
hour after reveille every man had to turn out 
to roll call. The men thus had fifteen minutes 
to dress and put their tents in order. At six 
o'clock the breakfast signal was sounded and 
all fell in line to go to the cook-house and get 
their breakfasts. The cup and plate furnished 

ii 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

by the government were of tin, much like 
those I remember having seen children use in 
early boyhood. They were expected to stand 
the rough usage of army life. Knives, forks 
and spoons were of the same rude character. 
Pedlers, however, early appeared in camp with 
a combination, the three hooking together and 
making a very light, portable and convenient 
thing to carry, and many of the boys bought 
and carried them in preference to those fur- 
nished by the government. Some of the 
rations were served out to the men, as soon as 
received from the Commissary Department, 
such as sugar, salt, bread and salt pork. 
Other things like corned beef, beans and coffee 
were cooked by the company cook and served 
at meal times hot. Soft bread, a very good 
kind of wheat bread, was furnished at con- 
venient times when we were in camp, at other 
times we received the regular army crackers. 
These were sometimes, during the first year, 
very poor; they had doubtless been in the 
government storehouses a long time, but 
later on when we received fresh crackers they 
were very palatable. 

At eight o'clock every morning the surgeons' 
call was sounded and any man who did not 
feel well could go and see the doctor, perhaps 
get excused from duty, get some pills or some 



LEARNING TO BE A SOLDIER 

quinine to take, or, if sick, be given a bed in 
the hospital. Although I spent nearly the 
entire year in the hospital (the last year of 
my service, after being wounded in July, 1864), 
previous to that time I only once answered the 
surgeons' call and that was when every man 
in the regiment was ordered up to the surgeon's 
tent and given a dose of quinine and whiskey. 
This was while we were at Newbern, North 
Carolina, when chills and fever were prevalent 
in the regiment. At nine o'clock in the even- 
ing tattoo was sounded, the signal for all 
soldiers to repair to their quarters, and fifteen 
minutes later taps gave the signal for all lights 
to be extinguished. This living in accordance 
with military regulation, seemed a little strange 
and reminded the writer of the time when he 
lived in a factory village where a bell sounded 
the time to get up, where one is rung into the 
factory and rung out again, suggesting a kind 
of life where a man becomes simply a cog in a 
wheel. 

We had been in camp about two weeks when 
we learned the Barre company was to be known 
as Company K, and that the regiment was to 
be the 21st Regiment of volunteer infantry 
from Massachusetts. We had wall tents with 
floors, and very good bunks to sleep on. If 
nothing else could be got a chip or a quart 

13 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

bottle made a candlestick, but a bayonet which 
could be stuck in the ground was more reliable. 
A large potato flattened on one side and a hole 
dug out for the candle, or a cake of soap were 
also pretty serviceable. When I enlisted at 
Barre I received a military cap, it was one of 
the caps of the Barre Militia Company. It 
was the only garment of a military character 
I had until I received my United States uniform 
just before leaving Worcester for the front. 
The color was navy blue and it was trimmed 
with a red cord. It was a French type of cap, 
but it was afterwards known as the McClellan 
cap throughout the army. 

Drilling was, of course, the principal work of 
the day, at first in marching, company drill, 
platoon drill, squad drill, all to familiarize us 
with the movements of soldiers in two ranks. 
After a time we received muskets and then 
began the exercises in the manual of arms. 
Those muskets were of the most horrible kind 
imaginable, but they answered to drill with. 
That, however, was all they were good for 
excepting old junk. The name of our first 
captain was Parker. He was about six feet, 
six inches long. I think he was elected captain 
on account of his great length. He had been 
in the militia, I believe, but he knew as 
much about drilling or military matters gener- 

14 



LEARNING TO BE A SOLDIER 

ally as a South Sea Islander. As time went on, 
it was probably realized at headquarters that 
Captain Parker was not a suitable man to 
command a company in actual service, and he 
was never sworn into the United States service, 
and when we left Worcester for the front, the 
company was commanded by Thomas Wash- 
burn, a Worcester man. The first lieutenant 
was a Methodist minister, a schemer and a 
shark. He expected to be made chaplain of 
the regiment and failing in that, soon left us, 
taking with him about $90.00 of the company's 
funds. The second lieutenant was a man by 
the name of Williams, a Barre man. I remem- 
ber him as a man with a very large beard. A 
tall, slim man who was something of a drill 
master used to come over to camp, from the 
city and drill us occasionally. He wore a 
military uniform, stood very erect and had 
rather a military bearing. I think he would 
have accepted a commission in the company 
if one had been offered him, but he was not 
thus honored by Company K. 

While in camp my sister Lizzie came down 
to Worcester and visited me, staying with some 
friends in the city, and the day we broke camp 
and started for the front, my brother John 
came down to see me off. August 16th, an 
officer of the United States regular army 

15 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

visited the regiment and mustered us into the 
volunteer service of the United States. The 
next day we received our uniforms, a woolen 
and an India rubber blanket. This last had a 
slit in the middle through which the head could 
be thrust, one end dropping down in front, 
the other end covering the back, thus taking 
the place of a waterproof overcoat. Our 
uniforms were of two colors, light or sky blue 
and dark navy blue. The trousers and overcoats 
were of sky blue, the latter having a cape. 
The blouse and cap were of a dark or navy blue. 
The cap was somewhat like the McClellan 
cap in form, but the circular stiff part on 
top tipped forward farther than on the McClel- 
lan cap. 

The uniform of the non-commissioned officers, 
the corporal and sergeant, were the same as 
the private, they wearing chevrons on the sleeves 
of their coats to indicate their ranks. The 
commissioned officers were not expected to 
associate with the privates at all ; they belonged 
to another class of men entirely. They dressed 
in a very smart way. Their uniforms were all 
tailor-made, all dark blue in color; the dress 
coat quite a little like the Prince Albert coat ; 
the cap they wore was usually the McClellan 
cap. Our accoutrements consisted of a belt, a 
cartridge box, cap box, bayonet-scabbard, 

16 



LEARNING TO BE A SOLDIER 

haversack, canteen and knapsack. We were 
also furnished with new guns, Springfield 
smoothbores. These were a little better than 
those we had been using to drill with, but they 
were none too good. Thus, in a few days, these 
hundreds of boys were converted into a regiment 
of infantry .soldiers, and on August 23d we 
marched forth from Camp Lincoln, our belts 
bristling with large bowie knives and revolvers, 
and started for the front. We took a train 
for Norwich, Conn. There we boarded a boat 
for Jersey City. As we passed along through 
the state, people in large numbers were gathered 
at the railroad stations to greet us, and from 
nearly every farmhouse a little flag or hand- 
kerchief signaled us a sympathetic goodbye. 
While we lay on the wharf at Jersey City, who 
should appear but George and Fred Lincoln 
of Brooklyn, N. Y. Their father was a Hard- 
wick man and the family used to spend their 
summer vacations at the old family home in 
Hardwick at the time I worked for Mr. Walker. 
We had thus come to know each other quite 
well. They were two fine boys and I was glad 
to see them. About noon a train of freight 
cars were ready and we clambered aboard and 
started for Philadelphia. All the way through 
New Jersey the people were out in the streets 
waving their handkerchiefs and bidding us 

17 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

goodbye. So much goodbye-saying annoyed 
me after a time, and I withdrew inside the car 
out of sight and engaged my mind with other 
thoughts. About eight o'clock in the evening we 
reached Philadelphia. Here we were marched 
to the Cooper Shop saloon and were given a 
fine supper. We were very hungry and that 
supper was so good. We were made so welcome 
and everything connected with it was so kindly 
and so genuine that through all our lives this 
was one of the incidents we looked back to with 
a feeling of grateful appreciation. If that 
was an example of Quaker kindness and Quaker 
charity I raise my hat to the descendants of 
William Penn and his colony. 

Havre-de-Grace, where we arrived the next 
morning, August 25th, will always be remem- 
bered as the place where we received our first 
ammunition and where for the first time, we 
loaded our muskets with real ball cartridges. 
We were nearing Baltimore and would soon 
be on the edge of Rebeldom, but when we 
arrived in Baltimore, nothing occurred out of 
the ordinary. We marched unmolested and 
unnoticed through the city to Patterson Park, 
where we went into camp. I confess to not 
having slept much the first night we were 
there. It seemed as if it must be a city of 
dogs and the whole population was on the street 

18 



LEARNING TO BE A SOLDIER 

barking all night. Such a barking, such a 
never-ending uproar — I never heard anything 
approaching it until I visited Cairo and Con- 
stantinople in recent years. Those cities are 
filled with tramp dogs, and as a result there is 
a constant breaking out of the barking of the 
dogs through the whole night. The second 
night we were at Patterson Park, the long roll 
was beaten at about one o'clock at night. We 
turned out, fell into line ready for business in 
short order but that was all there was to it ; it was 
part of the exercise we were to become accus- 
tomed to, I imagine. We stayed at Baltimore 
three days and nothing out of the ordinary 
occurred. To be sure, we were not treated very 
cordially, but we were not insulted, we were 
just left severely alone. Personally, after I got a 
taste of the peaches and cantaloupes, I thor- 
oughly enjoyed myself there. Those peaches 
and cantaloupes were of the finest kind and so 
cheap, I ate to my heart's content — rather to 
my stomach 's content. August 29th we went to 
Annapolis, where we were quartered in the Naval 
School buildings. The cadets and everything 
that was movable had been taken to Newport, 
R.I. The grounds of the academy supplied us 
with a fine drill field and we utilized it constantly 
and became, as we thought, quite proficient. 
But one fine day as the troops assembled there to 

19 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

go on the Sherman expedition to Bufort and 
Port Royal, S. C, there came two German 
regiments from New York City. Every man 
was by birth a German and they had evidently 
been through the military training incident to 
all native German boys. Well, the evolutions 
of those regiments as they drilled were a revela- 
tion to us. None of us had at the time seen any- 
thing comparable with it and it made us feel 
as provincial as you please. 

At Baltimore we had a glimpse of negro life, — 
but it was only a glimpse. We were there so short 
a time, and not being allowed to leave camp, all 
we saw was the glances we got as we marched 
through the city on our way to the camp and 
as we went away. But at Annapolis and on the 
railroad out in the country we had a chance to 
see something of the negro and negro life. 
Those we saw on the street and about the 
•town at Annapolis were fairly well dressed and 
looked a little poorer only than those one would 
see in a northern city. One day, however, 
while out rowing with a crowd of the boys we 
landed at the wharf of a man in the oyster 
business; boat loads of oysters were arriving 
at the wharf, brought in by negroes who raked 
them, and in a small building were a number 
of negro men and women opening oysters. 
These last were a sight to be remembered. 

20 



LEARNING TO BE A SOLDIER 

The negroes were hardly dressed at all, and the 
few clothes they had on were of the very coarsest 
material, and they looked about like the kind 
one would expect to see in Africa. Our cattle 
and horses in the North have the appearance 
of being better cared for, and as those negroes 
worked, there was no intimation of intelligence ; 
they worked like horses in a treadmill. Later 
on, while doing picket duty out on the railroad, 
I saw a lot of cornfield negroes at a negro 
husking. There was a long pile of corn heaped 
up just as it was cut in the field and all around 
it sat the negroes husking. They sang most 
of the time a monotonous sing-song tune. 
There were present negroes from different 
parts of the plantation and there was a feud 
to be avenged. All at once each man whipped 
out an axe-handle and at each other they went 
with a fury thoroughly brutal, pounding each 
other on the body, head or anywhere. The 
overseers were soon after them and had them 
separated and at their husking again. The axe- 
handles, all that could be got hold of, were 
taken away from them. These field negroes, 
or cornfield negroes, are about the lowest and 
worst in the South. Great care has to be exer- 
cised to prevent them from getting hold of 
knives. Had half a dozen of these negroes had 
knives at that time there would have been a lot 

21 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

of blood spilled. There was quite a little 
spilled as it was. 

October 2 2 . There has been quite a bit of ex- 
citement the last two days in camp caused by 
the secreting in the grounds of a negro slave who 
was also assisted in his escape by some of the 
boys. The negro belonged to Governor Hicks 
and he was seen making his escape into the. 
grounds. Colonel Morse did his best to find 
the negro but no one else gave himself any 
trouble about the matter. The negro was care- 
fully hidden in an old chimney until night, when 
one of the boys stole a rowboat in the town, 
took it around to a little dark place behind 
some old sheds, loaded Mr. Negro into the boat, 
gave him a bag of hardtack and started him 
off down the sound in the direction of Baltimore. 

It was no uncommon thing for negroes to be 
assisted in making their escape by the boys, but 
this negro, having been seen entering the 
grounds by the main gate, and the owner being 
no less a person than the Governor of the 
State, the affair was given exceptional import- 
ance. 

Those of us boys who were fond of shell 
fish, had a treat at Annapolis. The famous 
Chesapeake Bay oysters were in abundance, 
cheap and delicious. Besides these, there was 
a kind of crab the fishermen brought to the 

22 



LEARNING TO BE A SOLDIER 

wharf and sold to us, that was as sweet and 
as delicious as they could be. 

October 29. Company K and three other 
companies were sent out on to the railroad 
between Annapolis and Annapolis Junction 
to do picket duty along the railroad, relieving 
the companies that had been out there while 
we were at Annapolis. When we boarded 
the train to go out, it was discovered that the 
orderly sergeant was drunk. It was his duty 
to have the camp equipment for each of the 
posts along the road all together, and kept 
together, that it could be unloaded from the 
train without delay at each of the different 
stations. When we reached the first station it 
was found that the camp equipage was in the 
same muddled state as the sergeant's brains. 
It was the usual thing when a non-commissioned 
officer sinned to reduce him to the ranks. 
The orderly sergeant of Company K fared the 
regular fate in this instance. The new orderly 
sergeant was a man by the name of Charles 
Plummer, a stranger to all of us. He had 
joined the company just before we left Worces- 
ter. From what we had seen of him at that 
time, he gave us the impression of being a man 
of exceptional ability. The last vestige of life 
in the barracks ended at that time, after that 
we slept in tents, and each did his own cooking^ 

23 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

such as it was. To break the monotony of our 
meals, different methods of treating hardtack 
were devised — like toasting, moistening and 
frying, etc. The canteen wash, when one was 
willing to carry the water from the stream to 
camp, rather than wash at the stream which 
was usual, consisted in one soldier holding the 
canteen and pouring the water on to the hands 
of No. 2, until No. 2 had got a good wash, 
then turning about and No. 2 holding the can- 
teen and pouring the water for No. 1 to have 
a wash. Our washing of clothes was most of 
it done at the stream, but as we had no means 
of heating water they were not boiled and were 
not as clean as they might have been. It was 
a common thing for negro women to come 
around and get soiled clothes to wash. 

Doing picket duty on the railroad we found 
very uninteresting and monotonous work, and 
we were greatly pleased when we heard Governor 
Andrew had been at Annapolis, had promised 
us new guns, and that we had been assigned 
to the Ninth Army Corps and were to go on 
the Burnside Expedition. Our stay on the 
railroad was thus cut short, and on December 18 
we were relieved from further duty there, and 
returned to Annapolis. We then discovered 
that in our absence out on the railroad, a 
chaplain had arrived from Massachusetts, 

24 



LEARNING TO BE A SOLDIER 

Rev. George S. Ball of Upton, a man whom, 
as time went on, we came to have the highest 
regard for. 

December 19. Together with the rest of 
the troops assembled there, some ten or twelve 
thousand men, we were reviewed by General 
Burnside and on the 20th there was a grand 
inspection, after which we were told that the 
21st had been assigned to the 2d, General 
Reno's Brigade, and that we were the first 
regiment selected by the General and were to 
occupy the right flank of the brigade. 

December 21. We received our new rifles 
and were greatly delighted with them. They 
were Enfield rifles, made in England. The 
2 2d and a number of days following, we were 
marched out into the country, into a very large 
field, and put through regimental drill for four 
or five hours every day. It was the first time 
the regiment had all been together since we 
were at Baltimore. The 26th we received a 
supply of ball-cartridges and went out into the 
same great field again, put up a lot of targets 
at different distances and practiced firing at 
them for a number of days, accustoming our- 
selves to estimating distances, and adjusting 
the sights on our guns to the different distances. 
We had our final drill and practice in firing at 
target the 2d of January. After we went in 

25 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

town off the railroad we did a lot of drilling and 
firing at target and I think the boys were then 
in fine shape for a campaign. The stay at 
Annapolis was an excellent experience for us. 
We became accustomed to army life and if 
we were ever to be in shape for active service 
we were then. The last days at Annapolis 
were very lively; new regiments were arriving 
daily. There were inspections; ships were 
gathering in the bay; Colonel Morse resigned 
command of the regiment to become Comman- 
der of the Post; Lieutenant-Colonel Maggi 
took command of the regiment, and on January 
6th we went on board the ship Northerner, bound 
for we knew not where. 



26 



Chapter II 
THE NORTH CAROLINA CAMPAIGN 

On shipbound. Burial at sea. At Hatteras Inlet. Battle of Roanoke 
Island. Battle of Newbern. Reading Johnnies' love letters. Athletics. 
Battle of Camden. Went to the relief of the 2d Maryland. 

ALTHOUGH we went on board ship 
the 6th of January, 1862, we did 
not leave port until the 9th. General 
Reno, our brigade commander, came on board 
the 7 th and we were much pleased that he was 
to be with us on our ship during the voyage. 

The morning of the 9th we moved down 
the bay; late in the afternoon the weather 
grew thick and we anchored for the night. 
The next day about noon, the fog having lifted, 
we moved on and about sunset sailed into 
Hampton Roads and anchored with a number 
of other ships of the squadron not far from 
Fortress Monroe. 

The ''Northerner" was a large boat, but a 
thousand men aboard made her very much 
crowded. 

Between ten and eleven o'clock the night of 
the nth, amid a furore of signals, whistles, 
ringing of bells, etc., we left Hampton Roads 
and headed out to sea. I had turned in when 
we started but soon realized that we had left 
the placid waters of Chesapeake Bay, and that 

27 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

the good ship " Northerner" was plowing its 
way through the waves of the open ocean. 

It was midwinter. The wind was blowing 
strongly; the ship rolled and plunged and as I 
lay in my bunk I soon became aware that many 
of the boys were sea-sick. I felt a little 
peculiar myself, but decided the best thing for 
me to do was to lie right still in my bunk. I 
soon went to sleep and slept until morning. 
As soon as I got up I was sick, too. I ate no 
breakfast and was sick most of the forenoon, 
but during the afternoon my stomach became 
settled and during the rest of the voyage I was 
able to eat and was as well as usual. 

The next day our destination was revealed. 
We were bound for Hatteras Inlet and the 
North Carolina coast. The cape, a narrow 
belt of sand, came into view. The waves 
breaking on the sand made a white line all along 
the cape and we could hear the roar of the 
breaking waves. The forts at the inlet that 
looked like two piles of earth could be distin- 
guished but the sea was too rough to attempt 
to enter the inlet so we anchored in a sheltered 
place and waited until the next day when the 
wind and sea having quieted down we were 
able to pass safely through the inlet. 

Cape Hatteras is known to mariners as a 
rough, stormy place. The wind blows almost 

28 



NORTH CAROLINA CAMPAIGN 

a gale there nearly all the time. We were 
thus heartily glad when we found ourselves 
safely inside the inlet. Our ship was among 
the first to arrive inside ; for many days ships of 
the squadron continued to come in. 

This was the first trip on the ocean for many 
of us, but while it was very rough and fraught 
with exposure and danger, the spirit of adven- 
ture was so strong among the boys that on the 
whole it was welcome experience. 

After we arrived in harbor we learned that 
the captain of the ship was found dead drunk, 
by General Reno, the night of the 12th, at the 
very most critical time when we were approach- 
ing the inlet. He was put under arrest and 
command of the ship was turned over to the 
first mate. The captain intended to run into 
the inlet that night, which would have been a 
very perilous thing to attempt. 

Just before running into the inlet we wit- 
nessed a new and weird ceremony, — burial at 
sea. The night of January 12th and 13th two 
men had died on board ; one a Company A man, 
and a Company B man. They were each put 
into a canvas sack with a 3 2 -pound ball at the 
feet and dropped overboard. 

The basin where we were anchored was simply 
a deep hole just inside the inlet. It was large 
enough to accommodate ten or fifteen ships 

29 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

comfortably, but towards the last of our stay 
there, when all or nearly all the ships of the 
squadron had arrived, and there were seventy 
or eighty ships there, the place became danger- 
ously crowded. 

Soon after reaching the inlet it was discovered 
that the "Northerner" and some other vessels 
drew too much water (nine feet) to cross the bar 
which had only eight feet of water at high tide, 
to admit of their passing into the sound. We lay 
there from the 13th until the 26th when, after 
the regiment and everything else that was 
movable had been transferred to other vessels, 
three tugs succeeded in dragging the "North- 
erner" across the bar. The two weeks we lay 
anchored in that basin seemed like months. 
All one could see was sky, water and the cape, 
a narrow strip of sand stretching off to the 
north and south, the whole a picture of desola- 
tion. The ocean waves came pouring and 
thundering unceasingly in from the east, pound- 
ing the cape as if determined to force their 
way into the sound. The wind blew a gale and 
it rained most of the time. The sun shone only 
twice during the two weeks. On account of the 
delay, the water supply ran short and but for 
the rain we would have suffered for water. 

Two ships of the squadron never made the 
inlet. The "City of New York," a freighter 

30 



NORTH CAROLINA CAMPAIGN 

loaded with tents, ammunition, etc., ran onto 
the rocks and went to pieces trying to 
make the inlet. The * 'Pocahontas," another 
freighter, loaded with horses, went ashore some 
distance up the coast. One day the colonel 
and surgeon of the 9th New Jersey Regiment 
came into the inlet in a rowboat from their ship 
outside, for orders. They got their orders and 
started back, but were swamped in the breakers 
in plain sight of us. The ships were continually 
dragging anchor and running into each other. 
Just before we got across the bar it became 
known that we were bound up Pamlico Sound 
to attack Roanoke Island. 

Life became more bearable after we got 
across the bar out into the sound. The storm 
had passed off, the sun came out. We received 
our first mail from home the 2 8th. The gunboats 
practiced firing at targets and we boys practiced 
firing at ducks and gulls with our revolvers. 

February 5th we started up the sound, the 
gunboats taking the lead. It was a handsome 
sight, eighty ships in all, forty gunboats, and 
about the same number of other ships carrying 
the troops, baggage, provisions, ammunition, etc. 
The naval part was under the command of 
Flag Officer Goldsborough. At about five o 'clock 
we anchored in plain sight of Roanoke Island. 
We were enveloped in a dense fog all day 

31 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

the 6th and did not move, and saw nothing. 
To break the monotony, Colonel Maggi got us to- 
gether on the hurricane deck and made a speech. 
Considering their brevity, as well as his accent 
which was very Italian, his speeches were very 
funny. This one was about like the following: 
"Soldiers ob de 21st, to-day you be 21st, to- 
morrow you be 1st. " 

February 7th at nine o'clock we moved on, the 
gunboats leading the way, and they were soon 
engaged first with some Confederate gunboats, 
then with the forts on the island, the rebel gun- 
boats retiring behind a line of obstructions. 

The battle between our gunboats and the 
forts continued more or less fiercely all day. In 
the middle of the afternoon Fort Bartou, the 
fort nearest us, was practically silenced. At 
four o'clock we began to load into small boats 
preparatory to making a landing, and at five 
o'clock three or four thousand Union troops 
were on the island. 

We landed at Ashby's Cove, on the edge of a 
large field, where the water was sufficiently 
shallow to enable us to get ashore from small 
boats there being no landing of any kind on that 
side of the island. The boat I was in ran up 
into a lot of bogs and grass. As I sprang from 
the boat I made a good jump and landed on a 
large bog and got ashore with only wet feet, 

32 



NORTH CAROLINA CAMPAIGN 

but one of the boys who followed me made a 
less successful jump and landed in three feet of 
water. Just at that moment we saw the light 
flash on bayonets just across the field in the 
edge of the wood, and we expected the Johnnies 
would open fire on us every minute, but they 
did not, nor did we open fire on them. Soon 
we were up to the edge of the wood where we 
had seen the flashes of light on the bayonets. 
There was a road there and what we had seen 
evidently was flashes on the guns of a company 
of soldiers passing along that road. 

Early in the evening it began to rain and it 
rained most of the night. By putting on my 
rubber blanket which protected my body, arms 
and legs, my havelock kept the rain out of my 
face and neck, then with a stick of wood on 
which to sit on the leeward side of a tree trunk, 
I kept myself dry and got through the night 
fairly comfortably and got quite a little rest. 

About seven o'clock the morning of the 8th 
the first brigade moved past us down the road 
leading to the Confederate barracks and forts. 
About half a mile down that road the Johnnies 
had built an earthwork and mounted cannon. 
The first brigade, as it approached the earth- 
work, moved to the right to attack the fort on 
the left flank. Two little brass howitzers 
manned by sailors went next and we followed 

33 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

them until we were in sight of the fort, when 
we moved to the left to attack the fort on the 
right flank. As we got into position the Con- 
federates finding themselves out-flanked on both 
sides, retreated. The road in front of the fort 
was the only dry land on that side and it was 
occupied by the sailors and their howitzers. 
The fort, however, was built at the end of a 
tongue of dry land extending toward us. This 
tongue of land was completely enveloped in 
front and the two sides with shallow water, 
the troops on both sides thus operated in water 
from one to three feet deep. 

Directly after losing their entrenched posi- 
tion, the rebels surrendered, we marched over 
to their barracks and went into camp. That 
night we had a fine supper and slept in fine, 
comfortable quarters, the first time we had 
slept in a real comfortable place since leaving 
Annapolis. 

Just before we started to charge, the moment 
intervening between the order to cease firing 
and the order to advance, George Booth was 
wounded in the mouth ; he was talking to me at 
the time and the ball entered his mouth, leaving 
no mark on his lips, knocked out two or three 
teeth and passed through his neck. He died 
in the hospital about a month and a half later. 

It is always interesting to analyze the feel- 
34 



NORTH CAROLINA CAMPAIGN 

ings one had when going into battle, especially 
the first one ; the feelings of the same man differ 
so much, however, on going into different battles 
my belief is that much depends upon the state 
of the nervous system at the time. 

It is very well known that the bravest men 
have on certain occasions been very much de- 
pressed before going into certain battles, 
yet went through them doing very brave things 
and came out unscratched. On some occa- 
sions, I do not remember that my feelings were 
exceptional at all, while on other occasions I 
remember distinctly feeling very nervous. The 
times that were the most difficult for me to 
control myself were when we were ordered to 
hold a position and being without ammunition 
we had nothing to do to employ our minds 
but just stay there and take the enemy's fire, 
such an instance as occurred at Antietam on the 
ridge in the afternoon of the fight. 

At Roanoke Island the idea most prominent 
in my mind as we went into our first fight was 
the desire to see a Johnnie and then perhaps 
to get a shot at him. Any fear of going in or 
possible result did not occur to me. It is im- 
possible to say this in relation to some of the 
great battles in which I took part later on, for 
my desire to see Johnnies was satisfied long 
before the war ended. 

35 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

The day after the fight, Colonel Maggi 
took the regiment over into a big fort on the 
west side of the island formed us around a big 
cannon there, then climbed up onto the gun 
carriage and with a big black cannon for a 
back ground made speech number two. This 
was like speech number one delivered on the 
"Northerner, ' ' but with variations. It was about 
as follows: "Soldiers ob de 21st, yesterday you 
be 21st. I tol you to-day you be 1st, you be 
1 st. " Flag Officer Gouldsborough, Comman- 
der of the Naval Squadron, was in the fort 
and he also made a speech to us. He was a big 
massively built, handsome man with a large 
full beard. He made the impression of being 
every inch a naval commander. 

The day we landed on Roanoke Island, 
February 7th, there died on the steamer, 
"Northerner" one of the most interesting men 
in the regiment, Charles Plummer Tidd. He 
was a personal friend of Dr. Cutter, the srrgeon 
and had been a personal friend and follower of 
John Brown. He had been in Kansas with 
them and with the latter at Harper's Ferry 
from which place he, with two others, made 
their escape. He enlisted in the 21st because 
Dr. Cutter was there, under the name of Charles 
Plummer; he enlisted as a private in Company 
K, and soon after was its orderly sergeant which 

36 



NORTH CAROLINA CAMPAIGN 

office he held at the time of his death. Plum- 
mer was buried on Roanoke Island, and Miss 
Cutter, to whom he had just become engaged, 
was buried beside him. Later, however, both 
were taken up and buried in the National 
Cemetery at Newbern. 

Just before we left the island, Colonel Maggi 
resigned. Colonel Maggi was a military edu- 
cated Italian, and it was said had seen service 
under Garibaldi. He wished to enforce the 
same kind of military discipline in our regi- 
ment that is maintained in the regular army. 
Our boys, as volunteers, would not submit to 
it; there was trouble and he resigned. It was 
a very unfortunate thing; he was a fine officer 
and his loss was very much regretted. In 
addition to this, all our company officers left 
us. Captain Washburn and Lieutenant Wil- 
liams disobeyed orders and were dismissed. 
Lieutenant Sermondy, who enlisted in the com- 
pany in the hope that he might become Chap- 
lain of the regiment, having failed in obtaining 
the appointment, and doubtless having seen 
all the fighting he cared to, resigned and went 
home. This put Company K in an awkward 
position. Second Lieutenant Charles W. Davis 
of Company A, was promoted to the rank of 
First Lieutenant, and put in command of the 
company. 

37 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

During the time we remained on the island 
we drilled a little in addition to guarding the 
prisoners who were soon sent to Elizabeth City 
and paroled. March 4th we went on board the 
"Northerner" again. The sailors of the bid 
ship had her gaily decorated for the occasion 
and we were welcomed on board again most 
cordially. 

Not until the nth did we move, then at night 
we dropped down the sound to near Hatteras 
Inlet. On the morning of the 12th we started 
down Pamlico Sound toward the mouth of the 
Neuse River. We were then told we were 
headed for Newbern, and up the river we sailed 
until we came to the mouth of Slocum's Creek, 
a small stream emptying its waters into the 
right side of the Neuse about fifteen miles 
below Newbern. Here we anchored for the 
night. 

The next day we were engaged most of the 
forenoon in landing, which was accomplished 
without interference, and about noon we started 
up the right bank of the river toward Newbern. 
We soon struck the railroad connecting New- 
bern and Beaufort and an extensive earthwork, 
and farther on toward Newbern still another, 
and a cavalry camp with a considerable quan- 
tity of provisions. Later on in the afternoon 
we reached the immediate front of the enemy's 

38 



NORTH CAROLINA CAMPAIGN 

last line of works rilled with soldiers and a fort 
with cannon mounted. Here they evidently- 
intended to make a stand. We halted for the 
night and our company was thrown out in front 
of us as a picket line. That was the first time 
I had been on picket duty right in front of the 
enemy, and if I remember rightly, I kept very 
much awake that night. Early in the morning 
we had coffee and directly started forward to 
the attack. The ground in our immediate 
front was uneven and as we passed over a little 
hill we came in sight of the Johnnies filing into 
their works in front of us. As we moved down 
the hill and across a narrow valley with a small 
stream winding through it, other troops ap- 
peared on the little hill we had just passed 
over. The Johnnies opened fire on them, we 
moved up to the brow of the next rise of ground 
and opened fire. Thus the battle in that part 
of the line began. 

A thing happened as we were making our 
way across the little stream just mentioned 
that afforded the boys some amusement. The 
stream was too wide to ford but there were 
places where one could jump across. Picking 
their way across in that way, to be sure, broke 
the line up pretty badly. It was just at that 
time the Johnnies opened fire on the troops 
in our immediate rear on the little hill. The 

39 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

Johnnies' opening fire was vigorous. There 
was a terrific roar of musketry and the way 
the balls tore through the treetops over our 
heads sounded peculiar enough, but we were 
protected, being so low down. One of the 
officers of our company had been a member of 
a country band at home, furnishing music 
for balls and dancing parties about the country. 
He had been the prompter, had called off the 
different dances. As we were getting across 
that stream in the midst of the roar from the 
Confederate musketry the officer referred to, 
became very much excited and danced around 
furiously ordering the company to keep in line, 
etc. None of the boys were particularly dis- 
turbed, but the officer referred to was very 
much excited. The boys noticed this, and 
directly some one piped up 'All promenade." 
Instantly another sang out, ' 'Ladies, grand 
change." That had the most remarkable 
effect on that officer. He saw at once that was 
banter aimed at him. He quieted down and 
behaved himself like a little man through the 
rest of the fight. 

We lay there and fired away until about 
eleven o'clock, when General Reno saw a 
favorable opportunity to make an advance. 
With the right wing of the 21st a charge was 
made breaking the enemy's lines and capturing 

40 



NORTH CAROLINA CAMPAIGN 

a battery; our right wing was forced back 
somewhat but the Johnnies were not able to 
recover their line entirely, nor get the guns of 
the battery away. Our boys shot down the 
horses and we all advanced. Directly, the 
Confederates saw their line was broken and 
they began to retreat all along the line. During 
the fight I had visible evidence of three close 
calls. I was lying with Brig. Barnes behind 
a little log that partly protected us, firing 
away. First the bayonet of my gun was hit, 
then a ball passed through my roll of blankets, 
and last the stock of my gun was shot away. 
Those hits were each made an instant after 
I fired. I think a Johnnie saw the smoke puff 
out from where I lay and fired at it. 

When my gun-stock was shot away I had to 
go back and get another. Pat Martin had been 
killed. I saw him lying on the ground with 
a bullet hole through his forehead. I was 
given his gun and went back to my place again. 
The bullet that went through my roll of blankets 
also made two holes through my blouse on my 
shoulder underneath the blankets. 

Captain Frazier of Company H did a clever 
piece of work at this time. He was in the right 
wing, his company was one of those that made 
the charge breaking the enemy's line and cap- 
turing the battery. When he was in the most 

41 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

advanced position, he was hit and fell to the 
ground; a few minutes later after the Johnnies 
had retaken the ground, he came to, the wound 
being a scalp wound, the bullet not penetrating 
the skull only stunned him for a moment. He 
was made prisoner and sent to the rear under 
guard. He was soon all right. He took in the 
situation and determined to play opossum. He 
feigned very sick, induced the guard to let 
him lie down in the shade of some bushes a 
little way from the road. He then kept a 
sharp watch out, saw the Confederates were 
retreating and at the proper moment pulled 
out his revolver, got the drop on his guard, 
made them lay down their guns and marched 
them back to the place where we were. 

We moved on a quarter or a half a mile where 
we came to the Johnnies' barracks. In front 
of the cook-house the tables were all set for 
breakfast but apparently not a thing had been 
eaten. The poor devils had been obliged to 
fall into line before they could eat their break- 
fasts and had fought the battle on empty 
stomachs. That must have been the reason 
why they lost. 

As we got over the excitement and had a 
chance to look around we discovered we were as 
black as a lot of niggers. Our powder was bad, 
the air was thick and heavy, forcing the smoke 

42 



NORTH CAROLINA CAMPAIGN 

down to the ground and as we perspired it 
stuck to us ; my gun had kicked so my shoulder 
was dreadfully sore, and my head had been 
nearly snapped off every time I fired, toward 
the last, and it ached enough to split open. 

We occupied the Johnnies' camp for a few 
days and had no end of fun going through their 
things and reading the love letters they had 
received from the girls they had left behind 
them. The next day we buried our four boys 
who were killed. They were Pat Martin, 
James Fessenden, Joseph E. Stone and James 
Sullivan. 

Of the four men killed in our company, I felt 
in only one a personal loss. Jimmy Sullivan 
of Westboro, was an exceptional boy, two years 
my junior. His was a light-hearted, joyous 
nature. He was the pet of the company and 
without an enemy in it. How he was killed I 
never knew; from the advanced position I 
occupied during the action it was impossible 
for me to know what was going on in the 
company. 

We remained in the rebs barracks three days, 
then went into camp in tents on the south side 
of a large field stretching along the right bank 
of the Trent River about a mile and a half 
from Newbern. That was not a bad place 
and we enjoyed the time we stayed there very 

43 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

well. Up to that time we had used the Sibley 
tent quite a little, a tent of the same form as the 
Indian tepee and doubtless designed from it, 
but they have evidently been given up, for from 
this time on we saw no more of them. The 
tents we were supplied with there were the wall 
tent used by the officers, hospitals and for 
commissary stores, and the small shelter tents 
for the men. The snakes were rather thick 
and too neighborly to suit some tastes. It was 
not at all uncommon to find one comfortably 
asleep in one's pocket or shoe as he dressed in 
the morning, or sunning himself under the edge 
of the tent in the afternoon, but they were not 
dangerous. I never heard of any one being 
bitten by one of them. 

A party of us boys built a trapeze and a 
vaulting bar, and started quite a little interest 
in athletics and had a lot of good fun there. 

We had been at Newbern but a few days when 
Miss Carrie Cutter, the daughter of the surgeon 
died of spotted fever. She went south with us 
from Annapolis to assist her father in the care 
of the sick and wounded men of the regiment. 
She was a delicate girl of eighteen years and 
could not withstand the exposure incident to 
army life. Her body was taken to Roanoke 
Island and buried beside that of her friend, 
Charles Plummer Tidd. 

44 



NORTH CAROLINA CAMPAIGN 

There was a good deal of sickness in the 
regiment at this time. The water we drank 
was surface water: many of the boys had chills 
and fever and a great deal of quinine and 
whiskey was taken. Some of the boys used to 
turn out quite regularly and go up to the 
surgeon's tent for the quinine and whiskey. 
Others of the fellows were unkind enough to 
intimate that they really went up for the whis- 
key, which was, of course, unjust and wrong. 

We had been here but a few weeks when a 
batch of recruits arrived at the regiment, two 
of which were assigned to our company. One 
of them had a few locks of rusty red hair hang- 
ing down over his shoulders, while his face was 
partially covered with a faded yellowish red 
beard. He was at once dubbed the Collie. The 
day after his arrival he was met by a friend of 
Harding Witt. This friend suggested to the 
newcomer that he could not have been in- 
formed of the regulations of the service or he 
would have been to the barber-shop and that 
soldiers who did not have their hair cut and their 
whiskers trimmed within forty-eight hours 
after joining the company were liable to im- 
prisonment for five days. Our friend with the 
yellow hair innocently fell into the trap and 
begged his comrade to conduct him to the 
company barber. This was precisely what 

45 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

was wanted, and the newcomer was escorted 
to the tent occupired by Harding Witt and his 
friend, which had been ordered to give the 
impression of a barber-shop. A large chair 
had been placed in the center of the tent with a 
mirror in the front of it, and near the chair 
was improvised a table on which was arranged 
a razor, scissors, cologne water and perfumery. 
Harding impersonated the barber, with coat off, 
a large white towel pinned in front of him like 
an apron. He sat reading a novel as the two 
entered. On seeing them he sprang to his feet 
and shouted "Next!" The recruit took the 
chair and Harding commenced operations. He 
took out his watch and laid it on the table, 
explaining as he did so, that the time was short 
but he would try and have him shaved and his 
hair cut by parade time. He had trimmed the 
beard from one side of his face and had cut the 
hair from one side of his head, when the drum 
beat. The recruit was dismissed till after the 
parade when he was told to return and the job 
would be finished. 

When the Captain took command of the 
company his eyes fastened on the recruit 
instantly, and he ordered him three paces to 
the front. As the man lumbered forward, for 
he was as awkward in actions as he was rustic 
in looks, the boys were ready to burst with 

4 6 



NORTH CAROLINA CAMPAIGN 

laughter. Indeed some of them did shout. 
The captain took in the situation, saw the poor 
fellow was the butt of some one's joke, smiled 
and ordered him to his quarters. After parade, 
Harding finished his job. 

Later Tom Winn and I found a large cotton 
field a mile and a half or two miles to the west 
of the camp, where the ground was just covered 
with running blackberries. We noised it around 
the camp and directly a fourth of the regi- 
ment could be seen out there picking black- 
berries. Dr Cutter heard about the berries and 
believing them beneficial to the health of the 
boys, recommended the giving of passes lib- 
erally, and extra large rations of sugar were 
also served to eat with them and for a while 
we had all the berries to eat we wanted. 

April 17, we went on board the old " North- 
erner" again. We were told we were going on 
a special expedition to the rear of Norfolk, Va. 
We moved down the river along Pamlico Sound, 
past Roanoke Island up Albermarle Sound to 
near Elizabeth City and landed on the op- 
posite side of the sound near Camden at just 
sunrise April 19. We started off into the 
country. At eleven o'clock we had marched 
a distance of eighteen miles through the dismal 
swamp, parts of the way over a corduroy 
road in a terrific heat. A number of the 

47 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

boys were sunstruck. E. B. Richardson of 
our company received a partial sunstroke. 
At eleven o'clock we struck the Johnnies at a 
place near South Mills. Our errand was the 
destruction of the stone locks of the Dismal 
Swamp Canal at that place. At four o'clock we 
had accomplished our purpose, the Johnnies 
had been driven away and the locks of the 
canal destroyed. From four to eight o'clock 
we rested, had coffee and supper, then started 
back and arrived at the boat and went aboard 
at sunrise the next morning. 

Soon after we started on our return trip it 
began to rain and it rained in torrents all the 
first part of the night. That return march 
was something indescribable. The logs of the 
corduroy road became very slippery when wet 
and if I fell flat once I did twenty times that 
night. That march of thirty-six miles between 
sunrise and sunrise, fighting a battle, destroy- 
ing a canal, eighteen miles through a swamp 
in a terrific heat, and the return eighteen miles 
in a dark, stormy night, part of the way over a 
corduroy road, was a test of our powers of 
endurance we never exceeded during the whole 
four years of our service. 

We clambered aboard the boat, threw off our 
knapsacks and dropped, and I do not think 
I moved during the whole day. At night the 

48 



NORTH CAROLINA CAMPAIGN 

cook came around and woke us up and we had 
a cup of coffee and something to eat. After 
that I unrolled my blanket and lay down on it 
and went to sleep again and slept straight on 
until the next morning. We arrived at New- 
bern early in the forenoon and at mid-day of 
the 2 2d we were back in our camp again. 

That was the time when the dread Merri- 
mac was receiving her finishing touches at the 
Gosport Navy Yard. The whole north quaked 
with fear of that huge iron monster. Govern- 
ment officials at Washington were very much 
disturbed about the mighty ironclad that so 
much was being written about in the public 
press. They were concerned lest she should 
steal down Dismal Swamp Canal from Norfolk 
to Elizabeth City, destroy our squadron in the 
sound, then escape to the high seas through 
Hatteras Inlet, hence our expedition, and des- 
truction of the locks of the canal at South Mills. 

Had the officials at Washington known then 
that the Merrimac drew 22 feet of water, that 
source of anxiety would have been dispelled 
at once, for no ship drawing such a depth of 
water could have manoeuvred in the shallow 
water of Albermarle and Pamlico Sound, much 
less passed over the bar at Hatteras Inlet where 
there is only eight feet of water at high tide. 

I brought back from South Mills in my knap- 
49 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

sack one thing I did not carry up there, namely, 
a Johnnie's bullet. When we first reached the 
battle ground, as our picket-line was feeling the 
Johnnies' position, the 21st was moved up just 
in their rear as a support and ordered to lie 
down. In a moment I was asleep, but directly 
something woke me. I had no idea what it was 
that started me. We were then ordered for- 
ward, and I thought no more of it until the 
next day on the boat, when I opened my knap- 
sack I found a ball, a hole in my knapsack and 
holes through a number of other things. It 
had entered the side, passed about half way 
through and brought up against a little hand 
dictionary. Then I knew what it was that 
awoke me as I lay asleep just in the rear of our 
picket line. 

A full blooded African, who was employed 
by Dr. Cutter about the hospital, was one day 
asked by the doctor his name. "Nathaniel" 
replied the negro. "Any other name?" said 
the doctor to which Sambo replied, "Why 
de last name is always de massa's name, Massa 
Johnson." "What do the people down here 
say this war is about?" asked the doctor. 
Nathaniel replied: "Why, sir, dey say dat some 
man called Linkum is going to kill all de women 
and de chilun an drive de massa away, and 
all de colored folks will be sold to Cuba." 

50 



NORTH CAROLINA CAMPAIGN 

Nathaniel then proceeded to give some new 
and highly interesting particulars respecting 
the genealogy of the President of the United 
States. "Dey say his wife is a black woman 
and dat his fadder and mudder came from 
Ireland," said he, speaking with emphasis. 

The doctor indignantly refuted the asper- 
sions cast upon the family of the President and 
disabused the negro of the false impressions 
which he had received from his secessionist 
mistress. 

On the night of May 16th, in the midst of a 
terrific thunder-storm, the long roll was beaten 
and we fell into line in light marching order. 
The night was as dark as a pocket but we formed 
line and dressed as readily as at mid-day, the 
lightning was so bright and so continuous. As 
soon as the line was formed we started off at a 
quick pace. After marching a few miles, one 
of the officers told us that the 2d Maryland 
Regiment was surrounded some miles back in 
the country, and we were going to their relief. 
They had been on a scouting expedition and 
had been entrapped. Soon after daylight 
having marched about fourteen miles, we met 
them on their way back to Newbern. They 
had extricated themselves from the trap they 
found themselves in, but they were well-nigh 
starved. Our cooks set to work and got them 

51 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

a rattling good breakfast, for we had taken a 
wagon load of provisions along. After the 
breakfast was disposed of we marched back to 
Newbern and the 2d Maryland was ever after 
a good friend of the 21st. 

At sunrise, July 6, 1862, we left our old camp 
on the bank of the River Trent, went on board 
of a large schooner and started down the river. 
At night we anchored near Hatteras Inlet. The 
next day, after being towed over the bar and 
through the inlet we sailed for Fortress Monroe 
where we arrived the middle of the afternoon of 
the 8 th. The 9 th we were taken to a landing at 
Newport News and went ashore in plain sight 
of the masts of the "Cumberland" and "Con- 
gress" as they stuck up out of about sixteen feet 
of water. 

It was just six months ago we started from 
this same place on the North Carolina campaign. 
When we leave here this time we shall join 
Pope to take part in his campaign in front of 
Washington. 



52 



Chapter III 
IN VIRGINIA UNDER GENERAL POPE 

A ride in the Confederate doctor's "One horse Chaise. " Living off the 
country. Learning the distance to Germania Ford. The Second Battle 
of Bull Run. The Battle of Chantilly. 

WHILE we remained at Newport News 
we had a rather pleasant time. We 
drilled a little, we played ball a good 
deal, we ate quahog clams, we received boxes 
from home filled with good things, and we 
swam in the waters of the bay; the sun was 
very hot, but there was always a good breeze. 
One of the boys, a rather awkward fellow, 
received a box from home. It contained among 
other things a box of dried prunes; he stewed 
some of them for sauce. He had no more than 
got them finished when the order was given to 
fall in for inspection. In his haste he upset 
his pan of sauce on his gun and equipments; 
line was formed and along came the colonel, 
the captain and the inspecting officer. He pre- 
sented his gun to the inspecting officer; but to 
the surprise and horror of the officer, his gloves 
of immaculate whiteness, were covered with 
a soft brown sticky substance. He looked at his 
gloves for an instant, and with an oath demand- 
ed "What is that?" and the king of the awkward 
squad made answer, "It is nothin' but stewed 

53 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

prunes." For an instant military discipline 
was powerless, but the man was sent to his 
quarters and was later dealt with. 

By the last of July the report was abroad 
that we were to leave soon and instead of going 
up the James River to reinforce McClellan, 
as we expected to do, on the 3d of August we 
started to join Pope. We sailed up the Poto- 
mac to Aquia Creek. We landed on the 4th, 
and took train for Fredericksburg, arriving 
there in a short time and went into camp about 
a mile from the town. 

There we remained until the 12th, and who 
of the 2 1 st boys does not remember how we 
enjoyed the delicious fresh spring water that 
was so abundant there, after drinking the North 
Carolina surface water? 

Directly after our arrival there, heavy picket 
posts were sent out on all the roads leading to 
the camp. I was in the detail which was estab- 
lished near the village of Falmouth, a little pine 
grove near the house of the local physician 
furnished us a fine camp ground. The physi- 
cian was a man about sixty years old, of 
one of the "first families of Virginia," and 
"secesh" through and through. Occasionally he 
would come over to our camp and talk with us. 
He was free to concede that his sympathies 
were with the South, and spoke with freedom 

54 



IN VIRGINIA UNDER GEN. POPE 

of the superiority of the southerner; he was 
very certain the Confederacy would be estab- 
lished. We answered his assertions respect- 
fully, but quietly determined to give the old 
man a jolt if we had a chance. The night 
before we left there, Harding Witt appeared 
at my tent door at about three o'clock in the 
morning; the way was clear. A colored boy, 
one of the doctors' servants who had engaged 
to co-operate with us for a consideration, had 
just been over and informed Harding that the 
doctor had been hastily called to Fredericks- 
burg and would not return until afternoon the 
next day. It had been predetermined that 
if possible we would have a ride in the old man's 
chaise. He had a good horse, and the chaise 
was large enough to hold three of us on a pinch- 
The party was to consist of Harding, Billy and 
myself and we were speedily on the way. As 
we approached the house we found the negro 
waiting for us; he then led the way by a back 
path to the rear of the buildings. The horse 
was soon harnessed into the chaise, and led 
by the same path down to the road. Billy 
unrolled a bundle of small United States flags 
he had got from the sutler and we proceeded 
to decorate that team as it was never decorated 
before, then we loaded in and started for camp. 
We reached there just as ranks were broken 

55 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

after the morning roll call. We rode up and 
down the parade ground a few times, then drove 
over into the company street and received the 
congratulations of our friends; then went for 
a drive and rode back again. When we reached 
the doctor's house we told his wife, it was 
President Lincoln's birthday and we thought 
we would take a ride to celebrate the occasion; 
besides we were concerned about the horse, lest 
he should become foundered standing in the 
barn so long without exercise. She called us a 
band of horse thieves, barbarians and vandals, 
and gave us a number of other pet names which 
have escaped me. We fully expected to be 
disciplined for this prank, but not an officer of 
the regiment saw us and not a word of reproof 
was ever said to one of us about the affair. It 
is needless to say the doctor did not honor us 
with a call that day and towards night we 
moved on, starting on a night's march towards 
Culpepper Court House — now marching, now 
standing still, dragging slowly along over one 
of the worst conceivable roads and not making 
more than ten miles during the whole night. 

In the early morning of the 13th, we halted 
and had coffee. After a rest of three or four 
hours we started on again and by night when 
we went into camp we were within a few miles 
of Bealton station; rations were issued and we 

56 



IN VIRGINIA UNDER GEN. POPE 

were taken on some freight cars and carried 
to Culpepper Court House. What a railroad 
that was? We covered the cars inside and 
out, we could not have run at the rate of more 
than eight or ten miles an hour, but that speed 
seemed dangerous. The cars swung, bumped 
and rolled along, I expected every minute they 
would leave the track, but they did not, and 
about the middle of the afternoon we reached 
Culpepper Court House. We marched through 
the town out a little way into the country and 
camped for the night. August the 15th we 
moved forward again in the afternoon about 
five or six miles and camped near the 
battlefield of Cedar Mountain. We had then 
become a part of General Pope's army, a part 
of which was in camp near by, and we immedi- 
ately proceeded to take advantage of Pope's 
General Order No. 10, which allowed the 
army to live off of the country. 

The land was not overflowing with milk and 
honey ; the cows, what there were of them, 
were kept milked pretty dry. However, the 
next day after we reached that neighborhood, 
a party of our boys did get a hive of bees, and 
another party to which the writer belonged 
succeeded in capturing a sheep. We had 
plenty of pork and bread, and with mutton 
and honey added, we lived very well. 

57 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

One afternoon while we were there, Harding 
Witt and I started out for a walk to see what 
there was to be seen going over towards the 
battlefield. We had just passed a deserted log 
house with a dead horse lying in front of it, 
when we overtook a long, lank, lean woman; 
she had a boy about eight years old with her. 
She had a large bundle of bedding on her head ; 
in one hand she had a basket full of cooking 
utensils and was holding onto the bundle with 
the other. 

As we approached she called out to James, 
who was heavily loaded with household things, 
"Geems, whorey up, you are so slow!" 

"Who lives in that house we have just 
passed?" said I, pointing to the log cabin. 

"I did." 

"Were you there during the fight?" 

"Guess I was." 

"Where was your husband?" 

"He war dead." 

"Was he killed in the battle?" 

"No, big Pete Jones killed him about two 
months ago." 

"How far is it to Germania Ford?" 

"Two skips and a right long jump ar reckon," 
and Harding and I trudged along as we had 
learned the distance to Germania Ford. 

By the 16th, it became interesting and 

58 



IN VIRGINIA UNDER GEN. POPE 

picturesque to see the Johnnies signaling in the 
evening from every hilltop on the other side 
of the Rapidan; we seemed to be very near 
them — almost among them. 

The afternoon of the 18th, things looked very 
ominous; great clouds of dust could be seen 
rising all along the southern horizon; our 
trains were moving to the rear; large masses of 
provisions were being destroyed. Just about 
sunset Confederate troops could be seen on 
the high ground on the other side of the river, 
and as darkness came on, the southern and 
southwestern sky became illuminated, indicat- 
ing camps of an army. Signaling, too, was 
carried on vigorously from the hilltops. Dur- 
ing the afternoon we were told that the army 
was to fall back to the north side of the Rappa- 
hannock and that our brigade was to act as rear 
guard. The first part of the night dragged 
slowly along and it was past midnight before 
we got started, but the road was clear, and 
once under way we moved rapidly. 

Our regiment led the brigade on this march 
and as we approached a road that led to Raccoon 
Ford a little way off to the right, General Reno 
rode up to the head of the column and showed 
some anxiety. The Confederates had some- 
thing of a force at Raccoon Ford and he, I 
imagine, knew we were running pretty close to 

59 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

them. They did not attempt to disturb us, 
however; they very likely did not know 
we were passing so near them, and we sped 
along, reaching Kelley's Ford about noon the 
19th, having marched a distance of twenty-three 
miles. 

The last mile before we reached the ford 
the road ran along near the river bank. It 
was hot and dusty, and the sight of that cool 
fresh water was too great a temptation for 
three of us boys, so down we went, stripped off 
and took a duck. We had no more than got 
into the water when we heard firing just behind 
us. The Johnnies' cavalry had overtaken us 
and had opened fire on the boys up in the road. 
We caught up our clothing and trappings and 
ran along beside the river under the bank up 
to the ford not more than half a mile and 
there dressed ourselves, then went and joined 
the regiment which was nearing the ford. 
The attack did not amount to anything. We 
soon crossed the river and went into camp. 

The thing that interested us most while at 
the ford, was the attacks by the Confederate 
cavalry on our cavalry pickets that were sta- 
tioned in the wood on the farther side of a very 
large field, on the south side of the river. The 
Johnnies attacked and drove in our pickets two 
or three times. To see the two forces manoeuvre 

60 



IN VIRGINIA UNDER GEN. POPE 

on that field was interesting; if the enemy came 
too near the ford a battery of artillery, stationed 
on high ground near us on the north side 
of the river, would open fire on the Johnnies and 
send them scurrying back into the wood again. 
We remained at the ford two days. 

Early in the morning of the 2 2d, we left 
Kelley's Ford, going up the river. Soon we 
heard artillery firing ahead but it did not last 
long. We soon passed through Rappahannock 
station where there were a lot of dead horses 
lying about, probably the result of the firing 
we had heard early in the morning. In the 
early morning of the 23d there was heavy 
artillery firing at Rappahannock station again. 
The commissary stores there were burned and I 
think the place had been evacuated. Clouds 
of dust may be seen off on the southwest and 
western horizon; artillery and infantry firing in 
front and to our left may be heard most of the 
time. We fired off and cleaned our guns and 
reloaded them again. All the signs indicate 
that we are drifting toward a battle. 

August 24. We started on the march early, 
but after going a little way turned into a pas- 
ture and halted, a fine steer was driven up and 
killed; in an hour all the eatable part of that 
creature had been consumed. There was a 
large field of corn nearby to which we helped 

61 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

ourselves, and we had as good a breakfast as 
any fellow ever needed. About ten o'clock 
heavy artillery firing opened in front of us. A 
squad of Confederate prisoners passed us going 
to the rear. There is firing on three sides of us , 
in front, to the left and in our rear. We are 
going slowly along now, marching two or three 
miles, then halting for an hour or two. 

We were ordered to support a battery that 
was firing across the river at a Confederate 
battery. A lot of our sharpshooters along 
the river bank were firing away too. Directly 
the Confederate guns were silenced but the 
river was between us; it was high, there was 
no ford nearby and we were obliged to leave 
the guns there. As we moved along during 
the afternoon, some ambulances loaded with 
wounded men passed us going to the rear. 
"Where were you hit?" asked one of the boys. 
"Passing the time of day with some cavalry 
on the other side of the river," was the answer 
received. At night we camped near our train 
and had some coffee, the first we had had since 
leaving Kelley's Ford. 

About eight o'clock the morning of the 25th 
we left camp, soon passing a bridge across the 
river on fire, then a dead negro lying beside 
the road. Some of the boys examined him and 
said his flesh was still warm. Those clouds 

62 



IN VIRGINIA UNDER GEN. POPE 

of dust are still visible off to the left. We 
passed through the town of Warrenton about 
noon, then marched till midnight. How the 
boys growled! And how they swore! Weren't 
we a tired lot when we halted! It seemed as if 
we would go to sleep marching. When we 
halted we took a few steps to the side of the 
road and dropped. We learned the next 
morning that we were at Warrenton Junction, 
where we stayed all day. 

Leaving camp early in the morning of 
August 27, we marched part way back to 
Warrenton, just for exercise, very likely. The 
reports circulated about Stonewall Jackson be- 
ing bagged and the like on this campaign 
are so common that they have come to be 
the laughing-stock of every one. We marched 
most of the day and halted at night at the 
village of Greenwich. Just before we went into 
camp, Billy started off across the fields a 'forag- 
ing. When he returned he brought with him a 
basket of turnips. He gave me three of them 
and that night I cooked and ate them. Well, 
it seemed to me that I never ate anything in 
my life that went to the right spot like those 
turnips. Cannonading in our front and clouds 
of dust rising off to the west and north on the 
horizon are almost continuous, and once more 
comes the report that Stonewall Jackson is 

63 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

caught at last. It is a mistake to think that 
the private soldiers are not, after a certain 
amount of experience, able to size up their com- 
manders in a fairly correct way. If there is a 
master mind at the head, they know it very 
quickly, and it did not take the men of the 
21st long to discover that there was no master 
mind at the head at that time. So much back- 
ing and filling, so much talking about bagging 
that old fox, Stonewall Jackson, soon became 
a matter of ridicule and all our dependence was 
placed in General Reno. 

August 28. We started early in the morning 
in the direction of Manassas Junction, reaching 
there about noon to find it had been burned. 
The storehouse and the trains of cars, all loaded 
with supplies, were in smouldering ruins. A 
few dead rebels lying about was the only 
redeeming feature. Late in the afternoon we 
started for Bull Run and when we camped in 
the evening, we were under the impression 
that we were in the immediate neighborhood 
of the old Bull Run battlefield. 

August 29. We started early in the morning, 
passed through Auburn and headed direct for 
the firing line; it sounded as if a battle was 
under way. A lot of paroled prisoners passed 
us going to the rear as we moved along. We 
soon reached a high hill to the top of which 

64 



IN VIRGINIA UNDER GEN. POPE 

we climbed. We had a fine view of the 
center and right center of the Confederate 
line, but where the Union army was I have not 
the remotest idea. Occasionally a brigade 
would be sent into the wood, down to our 
right center, would be cut to pieces and come 
out again. General Reno did not leave us for 
a moment. 

At about noon three batteries of artillery 
came up onto the hill and we took position in 
their rear as their support. A little later in 
the afternoon, the first brigade of our division, 
was sent into the wood on our right center, 
but soon came out broken and mangled and 
they were followed by the Johnnies, who 
pressed forward to capture the artillery in our 
front, but the artillery was too much for them. 
They in turn were sent back in confusion. Then 
the Johnnies massed a lot of artillery in our 
front and opened fire on the batteries we were 
supporting, and for an hour or an hour and a 
half the shot and shell came over there thick 
and fast and more of it. Two cannon of our 
batteries were dismounted, one ammunition 
caisson was blown up and a number of horses 
were killed. We were right in range, and got 
the full benefit of it. This was one of the in- 
stances where we were under fire but could 
do nothing ourselves, but lay there and take it — 

65 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

every fellow trying to see how close to the ground 
he could get. 

Toward evening we were ordered in; the 
brigade was moved down onto the slope in 
front of the artillery, then we halted. We 
remained there a little while and returned to 
our place in the rear of the batteries. We were 
told General Reno had seen General Pope, and 
had convinced him that to send our brigade in 
there unsupported would be needless slaughter. 
Just at dusk we witnessed off to our left a 
minor action that characterized the whole battle. 
A battery of artillery was placed on some 
raised ground and was firing away; it was sup- 
ported by a single regiment of infantry. All 
at once we saw a Confederate line of pickets 
creeping up on the battery. By picking off 
the gunners they soon had the battery silenced. 
Then a strong line of Confederate infantry 
advanced; the regiment of infantry in support 
moved forward, but they were dispersed and 
the battery was taken. Thus ended the first 
day's fight so far as we saw it. 

After that, we drew back a little way and had 
some supper; some of the boys made fires and 
cooked some coffee. One of them while stand- 
ing over the fire, his legs spread apart fixing his 
coffee cup, had the cup knocked from his hand. 
A Johnny sharpshooter had fired from a dis- 

66 



IN VIRGINIA UNDER GEN. POPE 

tance at the fire ; the ball, passing between the 
man's legs, hit the cup ; the fires were put out 
directly after that. 

August 30. Everything remained quiet until 
the middle of the afternoon, then the Confeder- 
ates began an advance on the left. There 
were a few troops there to face them, but not 
many. There seemed to be no head to, and no 
order in our forces, and the Johnnies with their 
long lines of battle well massed, moved forward 
with but slight opposition. As they advanced 
they threatened our position and we fell back 
to another hill farther in the rear. Toward 
dusk we moved off to the left in double quick 
time. We stopped and left our knapsacks in a 
little grove as we went along. We knew then 
there was business ahead, but we were ready 
for it as long as General Reno was with us, for 
we had entire confidence in him. He had 
hardly been out of our sight these last two days. 
We came on to a main road, followed it along 
a short distance, crossed a bridge over a small 
stream, moved to the left up on to a low hill 
and formed a line of battle; we were told to 
hold that bridge. 

As we moved to our positions we were exposed 
to the enemy's artillery and lost a few men, but 
we were undisturbed. 

General McDowell, that picturesque figure 
67 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

with the great mass of snow-white hair, and 
General Milroy, were on the hill when we ar- 
rived, and seemed delighted with the appear- 
ance of the brigade and its timely arrival. 
Two batteries of artillery were immediately 
brought up and put in position by General 
Reno. We had not long to wait. Sharp picket 
firing soon gave notice that our skirmish line 
was attacked and was falling back, and we 
heard troops forming down in the wood in 
front of us ; and soon on they came to the attack. 
Twice during the evening they charged up that 
hill, the first time a single line of battle, the 
second time two lines of battle deep, and each 
time they were repulsed with great loss. They 
hardly fired a gun, and we did not open fire until 
they were within three or four rods of us. 
Then we gave it to them in good earnest, the 
artillery with double charges of canister. We 
almost swept them from the hill. They went 
down in dozens, and retreated a broken and 
disorganized mass. 

Late in the evening the Johnnies made an 
attack on the left flank of the 51st New York 
that was on our left. We changed position 
and assisted the 51st in repulsing the attack. 

Later, the Confederates advanced a skirmish 
line to see if we were still there. They found 
us there. Toward midnight there was every 

68 



IN VIRGINIA UNDER GEN. POPE 

appearance that they had given up trying to 
take the hill that night. It was quiet all along 
the line save for the groans of the wounded 
and dying men that covered the slope in front 
of us. It was a beautiful night, and to lie there 
and listen to the appeals of those poor fellows 
and be unable to do anything for them was 
heartrending. Toward midnight we stole quietly 
away, first moving the cannon back by hand. 

General Hill in his report of the second battle 
of Bull Run stated his loss in the attack on the 
Henry House Hill the evening of August 30, 
1862, as 600 men. 

It is impossible to refrain from giving an 
account of Dr. Cutter's experience in this 
battle. 

Early in the afternoon of the 29th when the 
first brigade of our division was ordered in, Dr. 
Cutter went in with it. He was at the time 
acting as division surgeon. The first brigade 
got into a bad place, lost heavily and was 
forced back. As they began to retreat Dr. 
Cutter drew his sword and tried to hold the 
men up to their work. At that moment he 
was seen to fall to the ground and was supposed 
to be killed. A few minutes later, however, he 
regained consciousness and looking about saw 
a Confederate soldier standing over him and 
apparently about to run him through with his 

69 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

bayonet. Dr. Cutter pointed to his green 
sash and warned the soldier against killing a 
non-combatant. "But you have a sword in 
your hand now," replied the soldier. A Con- 
federate officer coming up at the moment 
ordered the soldier to move on and took the 
doctor to the rear. He then discovered what 
had happened. He had not been wounded at 
all. A bullet had struck the buckle plate of 
his waist belt and knocked the breath from 
his body, the effect of which having how passed 
off, he offered to assist in taking care of the 
wounded. This he was allowed to do and worked 
with the Confederate hospital staff all the 
afternoon taking care of the wounded, both 
Confederate and Union. 

The Confederates were not slow in discover- 
ing that Dr. Cutter was a man of exceptional 
knowledge and ability and, when night came 
on, the gray headed old man was taken to 
General Hills' headquarters and treated as an 
honored guest. During the evening he told the 
Confederate officers gathered flatly who he 
was, and advanced his abolition ideas with per- 
fect freedom. The Confederates saw that they 
had in their midst one of the fathers of Aboli- 
tionism in Massachusetts; that they were hav- 
ing the other side presented by one qualified to 
speak. It was a novel situation. They were 

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IN VIRGINIA UNDER GEN. POPE 

at the time confident in the success of their 
cause, and, while they laughed at his strictures, 
they encouraged him to go on and listened 
to him nearly the whole night. 

The evening of the second day's fight Dr. 
Cutter, still a prisoner, was in the vicinity and 
witnessed the massing of troops for the assault 
on the Henry House Hill and somehow had an 
intuition that it was the old second brigade 
that defended the hill, but not until well into 
the night did news reach headquarters that the 
Henry House Hill was defended by Reno's 
command. This delighted the old doctor. He 
made the Confederates acknowledge they got 
all they wanted and then told them who gave 
it to them. 

The second battle of Bull Run was a disas- 
trous battle for General Pope and the "Army 
of Virginia" but not for the old second brigade. 
We had checked the enemy's advance at a most 
critical moment, for as we moved back to Centre - 
ville that night we found the road choked with 
trains and artillery, much of which must have 
fallen into the enemy's hands had they not 
been stopped at the time. As it was they made 
no further effort to advance after the engage- 
ment at the bridge until the next day. Mean- 
while our artillery and trains got straightened 
out and well out of their way. 

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CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

Nothing of importance occurred to us on the 
31st. We lay quietly in camp near Centreville 
the whole day. 

September 1st, about two o'clock, we broke 
camp and started towards Fairfax Courthouse. 
As we started off, the report got around among 
the boys that Stonewall Jackson was in our 
rear, or threatened our communications with 
Washington. About four o'clock as we were 
marching along we heard a bugle on a small 
ridge to the left and in front of us. On looking 
up we saw a cornfield, and the upper edge of it 
rilled with Johnnies picking green corn. We 
were not more than a fourth of a mile from 
them and could see individual men distinctly. 
We halted and loaded our guns. Then we 
moved along past the Johnnies leaving them 
to our left, they disappearing behind the ridge. 
We soon came to some wood lying in front and 
extending off to the left. The 51st New York 
entered the wood ahead of us with a picket 
line advancing in front of it. It was soon evi- 
dent that each command had lost all connec- 
tion with the other, and was advancing no one 
knew where or why. The 21st seemed to have 
obliqued to the left of the 51st. We then 
came upon a line of Johnnies. We, thinking 
them to be the 51st, did not open fire until we 
received a most murderous fire from them. 

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IN VIRGINIA UNDER GEN. POPE 

In the meantime a heavy thunderstorm had 
come up, and we were soaked to our skins. My 
gun went all right the first time, but it was 
impossible to load it in such a downpour. I 
then got out my revolver and fired away with 
that. Every one who had a revolver fell back 
on that when his gun refused fire I expect. 
Captain Walcott seeing his men could not keep 
up much of a fire drew his revolver, stepped in 
front of his company and opened fire. When 
he had emptied his revolver he glanced around 
for his men, — they had gone. It was the same 
in all the companies, with their guns out of 
order, they could do nothing but fall back. 
We left a lot of poor fellows in that wood for 
whom nothing could be done but to bury their 
lifeless bodies. A little way back we re-formed 
and marched back to the edge of the wood. 

As we emerged from the wood General Phil 
Kearney rode up and ordered us to advance 
through the fields to the left of the wood we 
had just come out of, without a moment in 
which to put our guns in order. By that time it 
had stopped raining and the colonel begged 
for a few minutes that the men might put their 
guns in order, but without avail. Kearney could 
not be reasoned with and swore that if we did 
not move at once he would have the regiment 
put under arrest, and forward we went. It 

73 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

was then getting dark, and all we could see was 
lines of fire off to the left; we soon entered a 
cornfield and marched nearly through it. At 
the farther side was a Virginia rail-fence, beyond 
that, was a pasture half grown up. As we ar- 
rived within three or four rods of the rail-fence 
the order was given to halt and no sooner did 
we halt than the enemy opened fire from behind 
the rail-fence. What could we do? Not one 
in ten of our muskets was serviceable. Those 
who had revolvers used them; I used mine for 
the second time that day. We stood there a 
minute or two and then we retreated. When 
the Johnnies saw we were unable to return 
their fire they appreciated the situation and 
over and through the fence they came to 
capture prisoners, and before I knew it one of 
them was quite near me shouting: "Halt, 
throw down your gun," etc. But I did not 
halt, nor did I throw down my gun, but I did 
run and he ran after me. I soon decided in my 
mind that he was not gaining on me, then I 
thought I was increasing the distance between 
us; directly, I discovered a ditch in front of 
me. It looked very wide. My shoes were loaded 
with Virginia mud; could I jump it? I real- 
ized that everything depended on that jump, 
and I made a great effort. I struck the farther 
edge just far enough on to balance over, 

74 



IN VIRGINIA UNDER GEN. POPE 

picked myself up and started off up the other 
slope. Glancing back, I saw the Johnny who 
had chased me ordering some of our boys out 
of the ditch; they had made the fatal error of 
trying to secrete themselves in that ditch. I 
kept on going to the rear, until I reached the 
part of the field from which we started on that 
last advance with General Kearney; then I 
began to hunt around to find the boys. 

General Kearney went in with us as we ad- 
vanced into and through the cornfield; he rode 
along beside the colonel. When we got to 
within about four rods of the fence, the colonel 
was sure he saw soldiers move behind the 
fence and said to Kearney, ''There is a Rebel 
line of battle behind that fence." "No, there 
isn't," said Kearney and spurred his horse 
forward to get a nearer view. As he got to 
within a rod and a half or two rods of the fence, 
the Johnnies opened fire and General Kearney 
was one of the first to be killed at that time. 

When I began to hunt about for the boys, 
Billy Morrow was one of the first I run across. 
We soon found others and then the colors. 
Billy and I then thought of one of our friends, 
a fellow by the name of Bradish, a Company E 
man, who was hit in the wood. Billy had seen 
him at about the same time I did as we came 
out of the wood, and believing we were near 

75 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

the place, we started out to see if we could find 
him. Bradish had been one of the nine who 
had played ball at Newport News, and we were 
both very fond of him. We thought he was 
badly wounded and wondered if we could not 
find him and do something for him. It took but 
a few minutes to find the place. Then began 
the lone search. The last I saw of Bradish was 
as we neared the edge of the wood coming out. 
He was hobbling along trying to keep up with 
us. I did not know where he was hit, but I 
thought in the thigh or about the hip, for one 
of his legs seemed quite powerless. There 
were a number of dead men lying about 
but we were unprepared to believe our com- 
rade was dead, but when we examined the 
dead men we found Bradish was one of them. 
We found a place under a great pine tree; we 
dug a shallow grave and buried him near the 
place where he fell. We put a stone at each 
end of the grave, carved his initials on the 
trunk of the tree and left there one of our 
beloved comrades and one of the best soldiers 
in the regiment. 

The expression on his face I shall never for- 
get, it was so changed and so painful. Had we 
not been searching for him and turned him 
over, for as he lay his face was partially con- 
cealed, and so got a good view of it, I should 

76 



IN VIRGINIA UNDER GEN. POPE 

not have recognized him. He had probably 
died soon after we left him as we started on the 
advance into the cornfield, for he was entirely 
cold. The face of Pat. Martin, as I saw him 
after he was killed at the Battle of Newbern, 
was entirely expressionless ; he was shot through 
the brain and probably never knew what hit 
him. The Confederate who died while I was 
gone to get him a canteen of water, the morning 
after the Battle of Bethseda Church had a 
rather peaceful and happy expression on his 
face. Many of the men I helped to bury after 
the Battle of Fredericksburg had drawn, dis- 
tressed, painful expressions on their faces; 
some of them gave one the impression that they 
had suffered the most intense agony just before 
death. I never watched a man die who was 
killed in battle — the private soldier is too busy 
to watch his best friend die at such a time. 
In this Battle of Chantilly, the losses in killed, 
wounded and prisoners in the regiment were 
140, the heaviest loss we had sustained, in a 
single battle, up to this time. Three of our 
finest officers were killed; Lieutenant-Colonel 
Rice, Captain Fraser and Captain Kelton. 
We felt the loss of these men very deeply; but 
the worst thing about the whole matter was, we 
felt we had been sacrificed to no purpose. 
Every one felt that had General Reno been 

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CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

with us it would all have been different, but he 
was sick back to the rear in an ambulance off 
duty, and with him absent everything went 
wrong. General Kearney seems to have been 
entirely off his base that night; the way he 
ranted and swore around there was disgusting. 

The fault in the wood seems to have been 
that the officers of the 21st did not keep in 
touch with the 51st New York, and wandered 
off no one knew where. 

At roll call the next morning, September 2, 
there was but a shadow of the 21st present. 
After a while we started for Alexandria, mov- 
ing very slowly, marching and halting by turns, 
the roads being choked with artillery and 
trains. During one of these halts, as we lay 
beside the road, a thing occurred which showed 
the stuff at least one boy of that army was 
made of. There was a boy in our company 
by the name of Harding Witt. Harding was 
a Dana boy. I had known him a long time and 
I knew him well. We had been school com- 
panions and had enjoyed fishing excursions to- 
gether many a time. 

Harding was on the picket line at the time 
of the fight in the wood and so was absent 
from the company. But late at night after 
the fight was all over I heard he had been 
wounded. I heard nothing more and saw 

78 



IN VIRGINIA UNDER GEN. POPE 

nothing of him until the next day when halted 
in the road on our way back to Alexandria, I 
saw some one approaching. He had no gun 
and no knapsack; he had a canteen, his right 
sleeve was slit up and I could see a white ban- 
dage on the arm. The same could be seen on 
one of his legs. The trouser's leg was slit up 
and a bandage could be seen on the leg. He also 
had a bandage on his head. As he approached 
nearer I recognized Harding. He came up and 
as we shook hands I said to him: "Well, Harding, 
they called for you last night." "Yes, Mad," 
said he, "they called for me five times but I 
am all right." That boy had been hit five 
times, in the wood the night before, but he 
wasn't taken prisoner nor was he in the hospital. 
He was, however, obliged to go to the hospital 
later. 

We moved back to the vicinity of Alexandria 
and went into camp where we stayed until 
September 4th. During those days a number of 
the boys found their way back to the regiment. 
They had strayed away after the fight, some of 
them perhaps, making as famous runs as were 
made by some of the soldiers after the first 
Battle of Bull Run. 

Among those to return at that time was our 
beloved surgeon, Dr. Cutter. Imagine our 
surprise and delight one afternoon on seeing him 

79 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

march into camp. When the Confederates 
were ready to move on, he was set at liberty and 
had made his way back to Alexandria where 
we were in camp. To us, he seemed to have 
risen from the dead. The officers of the first 
brigade had reported him among the killed, and 
that report had been accepted by the men of 
the regiment, and to see the old hero again so 
unexpectedly, startled us. 

If I remember rightly, it was in this cam- 
paign, as we were falling back along the east 
side of the Rappahannock River, I first noticed 
a colored man, we later called Jeff Davis, hang- 
ing around the cook's quarters trying to make 
himself useful. He would gather wood for the 
cook's fire, tote the water, and on the march 
help carry the cooking utensils. In due time 
it was discovered that Jeff was an important 
acquisition to the company. He was good 
natured and just as willing to do things for 
the other boys as for the cook. Jeff Davis was 
a runaway slave, middle-aged, medium sized, 
wore top boots with his trousers tucked in, his 
shirt front was never buttoned either at the 
throat or lower down. His hat of black felt 
looked as if it had been thrown at him and he 
had caught it on one corner of his head. He 
had an easy going, rollicking gait and laugh, 
and was as full of fun as an egg is full of meat. 

80 



IN VIRGINIA UNDER GEN. POPE 

Still, Jeff was full of business, too, and when, 
later on, he became company cook, the cooking 
was never better done, or the interests of the 
company more carefully guarded than by him, 
and it was as cook of Company K we realized 
his supreme usefulness and worth. Acting 
as a sort of company treasurer, when the com- 
pany was paid off, he would pass around the 
hat and nearly every fellow would throw in a 
half a dollar or a dollar. Nothing would be 
seen of that money until we got into a hard 
place for food, then Jeff would manage to get 
us something to eat. Jeff was the best kind 
of a forager; he knew how to buy and he knew 
instinctively where to find things. 

During the Knoxville campaign, had it not 
been for Jeff we should have suffered much 
more than we did, although much of the time 
we received only half rations from the Com- 
missary Department and at times we received 
only two ears of corn for a day's ration, but 
every once in a while Jeff would get hold of 
something and give us a good meal. On the 
march over the mountains he picked up a little 
Mississippi mule and the amount of food that 
man hunted up and brought into camp during 
the siege of Knoxville was prodigious. If a 
foraging party went out from headquarters 
after forage for the horses and mules, Jeff was 

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CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

pretty sure to go along and he seldom came 
back to camp empty handed. Had any one 
asked Jeff how he got those things, he would 
have been shot on the spot — but no such foolish 
questions were asked. 

The things he got from people of his own 
race he doubtless bought and paid for, but it is 
very doubtful if the white planters ever saw 
much of Jeff's money. To be sure, he had 
some interesting experiences. One time he came 
near being captured by some of Longstreet's 
cavalry, but he succeeded in evading them 
and reached camp in safety. Jeff remained 
with the company until the end of the war, 
came home with us to Massachusetts, settled in 
one of the hill towns of Worcester County 
became a respected citizen, married, raised a 
family and died there. 



82 



Chapter IV 
WITH McCLELLAN IN MARYLAND 

The Barbara Fretchie Incident. The Battle of South Mountain. 
Death of General Reno. The Battle of Antietam. Clara Barton. Presi- 
dent Lincoln visits the army. Visited a farmhouse very near a Con- 
federate Camp. 

ON September 4th, we left our camp 
near Alexandria, marched to Washington, 
passed through the city and out into 
the northwest suburb, and went into camp. 

We remained there until the 7th, when we 
started through Maryland, marching leisurely 
along making only a few miles a day through as 
beautiful a country as one could wish to see. 
The evening of the 12 th at early dusk we filed 
into a great pasture on the east side of the 
Monocacy River and went into camp. Lights 
were beginning to glimmer across the river and 
we were told they were in the city of Frederick. 
Camp refuse lying about indicated that the 
field had been used as a camp ground for troops 
in the immediate past, and inquiry brought out 
the fact that some of Stonewall Jackson's 
troops had camped on the identical field the 
night before. This was enough to set the 
brains of the wags in motion and one asked 
immediately what the result would be of mix- 
ing northern and southern gray-backs? Soon, 
however, coffee was served and drank and we 

83 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

lay down to sleep under a most beautiful 
Maryland sky. 

The next morning we started and marched 
leisurely down to the river, crossed over it on 
an old wooden bridge and marched up into the 
city. There a halt was called and we lay in 
the street an hour or two. We had been there 
but a few minutes when the report was passed 
down the line that a loyal old woman lived on 
the street, who had a Union flag flying from a 
window and when ordered to take it down by 
the Rebels the day before, had refused to do so 
and it was shot down. Indeed, right opposite 
where Company K was resting, was the house, 
the flag still flying. 

Soon after we learned of this incident, General 
Reno, accompanied by an aide, rode down. 
He stopped before the house, dismounted, and 
went in. He remained inside only a few min- 
utes. As he came out an old lady accompanied 
him to the door. At the door they stopped for 
a moment, then, as he came away, she shut the 
door. General Reno mounted his horse and 
rode away. 

Directly the order was given to move on; we 
marched through the town and headed toward 
the Shenandoah mountains, which in Maryland 
are no more than a high range of hills. 

This account is what I remember of the 
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WITH McCLELLAN IN MARYLAND 

Barbara Fretchie incident. Since the war I 
have learned that General Reno's visit to 
Barbara Fretchie's house was made for the 
purpose of purchasing the flag that had been 
shot down the day before. He did not receive 
it, however, Barbara being unwilling to part 
with the flag which had then become doubly 
sacred to her. She gave him another, however, 
which has since found its way to the Museum of 
the Loyal Legion in Boston. 

As we marched along that afternoon we saw 
two Johnnies hanging from the branch of a tree 
in a pasture a few rods from the road. They 
had been executed for foraging by Stonewall 
Jackson's orders. Toward night we v went into 
camp near Middletown. 

September 14. We remained in camp until 
afternoon. Artillery firing was heard off on 
the mountain late in the forenoon. About 
two o'clock we started for the front. As we 
approached the active part of the field we had 
an opportunity to see what a field hospital 
was like during an engagement. We were 
almost up to the firing line going in, when we 
came to a little elevation. Behind that hill 
a field hospital had been established. The 
wounded were lying there in large numbers and 
others were being constantly brought in. The 
surgeons were at work taking care of the 

85 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

wounded, examining, binding up, operating, 
etc. Near the tables I saw a pile of arms, hands, 
legs, feet, etc., which had been amputated. 
The bullets were coming over there pretty 
thick but they were nothing compared to the 
sights and sounds seen and heard in that field 
hospital. It was the first field hospital I had 
ever seen; I never saw one afterwards, and I 
thank God for that. We were halted there 
beside it for a minute or two, otherwise we 
should not have had so good a view of it. 
When the order came to go forward, I for one, 
was glad, and I think every man in the com- 
pany was glad. Every man in the company 
I think, preferred to face bullets at the front and 
at short range, rather than stay back there, 
partially covered, under those conditions. Dur- 
ing the one or two minutes we halted there, a 
little Michigan drummer boy was brought in. 
He was a manly little fellow, a little chap not 
more than fourteen or fifteen years old. One 
of his legs had been badly wounded. One of 
the boys asked him how it was going out at the 
front. He raised himself up on one elbow and 
said: "Well, the 17th is behaving very well." 
The 17th (17th Michigan) made its reputa- 
tion that day as a fighting regiment. 

When we got up to the fighting line the 
Johnnies were falling back and we simply fol- 

86 



WITH McCLELLAN IN MARYLAND 

lowed them up clear to the top of the range, and 
by six o'clock they had apparently withdrawn 
from our front. The fight in our part of the 
field was then over and our brigade was resting 
in a field at the top of the range in Foxes' Gap. 
The road we were following over the range 
passed along on the right side of the field in 
which the brigade was resting. At the lower 
right corner the road made a right angle, turn- 
ing to the left, passed along behind an old 
stone wall directly in front of us, at the lower 
edge of the field for a few rods, then turned to 
the right and went off down the west side of 
the mountain. 

We had been resting there only a few min- 
utes when we were opened fire on by some 
Johnnies from behind the wall in front of us. 
They were evidently a company of sharp- 
shooters, who in their retreat had turned back, 
determined to look for an opportunity to get a 
crack at us. They had evidently come up 
that road until they reached the turn, there 
they formed themselves along behind the wall 
at the lower edge of the field, and opened fire. 
General Reno, his staff, and two or three others 
officers were sitting on their horses just to the 
rear of the brigade, which was massed there 
by regiment. General Reno was hit at that 
time and in that way, and died about eleven 

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CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

o'clock that night. There were not more than 
thirty or forty shots fired. A regiment back 
to the rear in a place where it could be handled 
better than we could in our massed state, moved 
around on to the Johnnies' right flank and 
opened fire on them, killing and wounding a 
number, and the rest retreated. 

About nine o'clock the morning of Septem- 
ber 1 5th, we started down the west side of the 
mountain range, heading in the direction of 
Sharpsburg. As we clambered along down the 
hill, an incident occurred that amused us quite 
a little, we were meeting little bunches of pris- 
oners that were being taken to the rear from 
time to time, they were in the main, stragglers 
that had been picked up by our cavalry. Glanc- 
ing down a little side road we saw a squad of 
Johnnies approaching us, they were being 
followed by a mounted officer wearing the 
blue. We were soon able to see it was one of 
General Ferrero's staff. This officer, we learned 
later, was an inveterate forager and as the 
general and his staff passed along down the 
hill a little while before us, the officer saw some 
distance from the main road a rather prosper- 
ous looking bunch of farm buildings, and think- 
ing there was a good opportunity to do some 
foraging, rode over there. The piazza was on 
the back side of the house and as he rode 

88 



WITH McCLELLAN IN MARYLAND 

around the house, there sat seven Johnnies on 
the piazza, their guns were all standing in one 
corner a little distance from them. He was 
tremendously startled as well as they, but he 
got his senses first, got his revolver out and got 
the drop on them before one of them moved. 
He then ordered them into line and marched 
them over to the main road, arriving there as 
our regiment was passing along. As we wended 
our way down the side of the mountain, the 
view we had below of the valley of the An- 
tietam was of surpassing beauty; Sharpsburg 
across the valley was barely distinguishable; 
then to the right and to the left, up and down 
the valley as far as the eye could penetrate, 
stretched one of the most beautiful valleys I 
have ever seen. The next day we lay in camp 
a mile or two from the Antietam River all day. 
The morning of the 17th, the battle opened 
on the right in good earnest, but not until well 
into the forenoon did it begin in our front, we 
being on the extreme left. Then we were 
ordered forward to support a battery. As we 
lay there behind the hill on which the battery 
was located, I had an interesting adventure. 
A shell fired at the battery on the hill in front 
of us struck the ground, bounded and struck 
the ground just back of me, I being seated on 
my knapsack facing the rear; it plowed a hole 

89 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

under me from back to front and came out 
between my feet. The ground settled down 
into the trench, my knapsack and I going down 
with it. Well, that shell was given room as 
quickly as possible. I rolled over three or four 
times and the other boys who were sitting near 
did the same, but fortunately it did not 
burst and no one got more than a good start. 
A little later my brother Vertulan, assistant 
surgeon of the 19th Massachusetts Regiment, 
gave me a call. 

About noon we were ordered in to take the 
Stone Bridge. Other troops had been ham- 
mering away at it for some hours but without 
success. We were moved down toward the 
river and opened fire on the Johnnies across 
a narrow valley on the other side. As we moved 
forward we came in sight of the bridge and the 
stream just below us. We stayed there in the 
open on the side hill sloping down toward the 
river quite a while, firing away. After a while 
we saw the fire of the Johnnies was slackening. 
Then we heard some troops down to our left 
cheering. From their position they could see 
the Johnnies were retreating better than we 
could. But as soon as we saw they were start- 
ing, we started too, and being much nearer we 
were easily the first to reach it. We crossed 
the bridge, turned to the right and marched 

90 



WITH McCLELLAN IN MARYLAND 

up a little way and halted to wait for ammuni- 
tion, we having only a few rounds left. For 
a while troops came across the bridge and 
poured past us by the thousand. After a while 
we moved up on to the high ground opposite 
the bridge. A dead Johnny, a sergeant was 
lying there on the ground. Harry Aldrich 
turned him over and got his portemonnaie out 
of his pocket. He opened it and found done up 
in a little piece of paper a number of five dollar 
gold pieces. A little later I came upon a man 
lying dead holding in his hand a photograph 
of a group of children. He had evidently 
found himself mortally wounded, had thought 
of his family at home and had taken that pic- 
ture from his pocket to take a last look at the 
likeness of those he loved so dearly and had 
died with the picture in his hand. Toward 
night we advanced toward Sharpsburg and 
took a position on the brow of a ridge facing 
the high hill where Lee had his reserve artillery 
massed, and there we stayed until well into 
the evening. We soon fired away all but one 
of our cartridges, retaining that one against 
an emergency. The Confederate infantry was 
behind a stone wall part way down the hill 
from the artillery. One of the Johnnies killed 
behind that wall had my knapsack on his 
back. He had found it in the little grove 

91 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

beside the road near the Henry House Hill on 
the Bull Run battlefield, and carried it into 
Maryland. 

The knapsack was found and identified by 
the man who painted the initials of my name, 
company, regiment and state on the side of it. 
He was a Company K man who was detailed 
in the hospital department. He found it in 
going over the field gathering up the wounded 
and burying the dead after the battle. It was 
there on that ridge that Lieutenant Holbrook 
was killed. He was knocked all to pieces by a 
cannon ball fired from one of the guns on the 
top of the hill. He lay about eight or ten feet 
to my right at the time. 

A regiment came up during the afternoon 
and took up a position on our left and stayed 
there until they had fired away all their ammu- 
nition and then, without regard to us or to 
holding the line, retired. We had been ordered 
to hold that position until dark, ammunition 
or no ammunition, and we stayed there until 
well into the evening. We lost forty-five of the 
one hundred and fifty men of the regiment in 
that fight. After nightfall we withdrew, went 
down to the vicinity of the bridge, had coffee, 
and were supplied with ammunition. 

During the evening an incident occurred, 
the effect of which was to last a long time. It 

92 



WITH McCLELLAN IN MARYLAND 

was after we had drank our coffee and had re- 
ceived our ammunition late in the evening. 
An army nurse asked some of the boys to go 
with her and assist in getting some wounded 
men who were near some houses outside our 
picket line up along the Sharpsburg Road. 
The boys went, brought in the wounded men 
and took them to a hospital nearby, no one 
getting hit, although they did draw the Rebel 
fire. The work being finished and having been 
done in so fine a spirit, the nurse wished to 
know who the men were, and where they came 
from. Learning they were Massachusetts men 
and from her own Worcester County, she was 
quite affected and revealed her own identity — 
Clara Barton of Oxford. A few moments of 
friendly handshaking and this first meeting 
ended, only for a time, however, for later on she 
visited us at Pleasant Valley and vowed eternal 
friendship. After the war she became a member 
of the regimental association, was a regular 
attendant at the annual reunions and ever 
declared herself a comrade of the boys of the 
regiment. 

We remained in camp over night not far from 
the bridge. 

September 18. Early in the forenoon we 
were moved to our extreme left, were deployed 
and did outpost duty. At night we were 

93 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

marched back to the other side of the Antietam 
and went into camp in an apple orchard. 

September 19. It was reported early in the 
morning that the Rebels had retreated. We 
soon formed line, crossed the river and moved 
over across the battlefield where there were a 
good many of our dead lying about. We moved 
along down to the Potomac where the Antietam 
empties into it. A few Johnnies were in sight on 
the other bank of the Potomac but disappeared 
when we opened fire on them. 

During the next forenoon who should ap- 
pear in camp unannounced, but General Burn- 
side. He had ridden over from his headquar- 
ters, wherever they were, with a single orderly, 
and in his cardigan jacket; he "had selected 
a fine place for us to go into camp," he said. 
We were ordered into line and followed him 
to our new camp ground. He stayed there a 
half an hour or an hour talking with the officers 
and men. He told us we could stay there a 
while and get rested, then rode away. 

The reason for this act of kindness toward 
the old regiment by General Burnside I have 
never been able to fully account for. He may 
have known that General Reno regarded it 
with special favor and General Reno had just 
been killed at South Mountain. Brigade after 
brigade had been sent in to take the bridge at 

94 



WITH McCLELLAN IN MARYLAND 

Antietam but it remained for the old 2d Bri- 
gade to accomplish the work. The 21st was 
the only New England regiment in the 2d Bri- 
gade, and he being a Rhode Island man, may 
have had something to do with it. At any rate, 
it made the boys feel mighty good to have the 
old general come over and show a personal 
interest in the regiment. The capture of the 
Stone Bridge by the old 2d Brigade deserves 
special mention for more reasons than one. 
One reason is the following: Charles Carlton 
Coffin, war correspondent of the Boston Journal, 
was an eye witness of the affair. He wrote 
home to his paper an account of the battle. 
In that account he spoke in such enthusiastic 
terms of the charge of the old 2d Brigade at 
the capture of the bridge that a special edition 
of the paper appeared a few days later contain- 
ing it. In that article he declared, 'The 
heroism of the assault upon the bridge by the 
three regiments was unsurpassed either on the 
Rebel or Union side, in the annals of the war." 

October 1. We moved down into Pleasant 
Valley and went into camp. We remained 
there until the 27th, resting, drilling, and being 
supplied with clothing, shoes, shelter tents, etc. 

The 3d. President Lincoln visited the army 
and there was a grand review. A review at 
that time of the Army of the Potomac, just 

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CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

at the end of McClellan's service with it, show- 
ing his great organizing ability at its best, was 
a spectacle of exceptional interest. The Army 
of the Potomac numbered at that time about 
145,000 men. It moved in formation by com- 
pany front, double quick time, regiment after 
regiment, brigade after brigade, division after 
division, army corps after army corps, infantry, 
cavalry and artillery, tramped, surged and 
poured past the reviewing party, at the head 
of which sat the President. It was a formid- 
able spectacle and must have pleased Mr. 
Lincoln. The President, it must be conceded, 
made a peculiar impression as he sat on his 
horse, his long legs almost dangling on the 
ground, or curled up and locked under the 
horse's body, his tall hat tipped back, among a 
lot of military men (every one a soldier from 
the ground up, and every one as trim a type as 
could be wished for) and sitting his horse as if 
a part of it. But when the troops had all 
marched past and the reviewing party rode 
away, they could not get away from him. 
Awkward as Mr. Lincoln looked, he was at 
home on his horse. He had a good horse and 
he stayed right with them to the end. 

A few days later Clara Barton made us a 
visit. She brought her knitting with her and 
stayed all the afternoon. She hunted up the 

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WITH McCLELLAN IN MARYLAND 

boys who had assisted her the evening after the 
battle. She went around among the officers 
and men chatting with them in the pleasantest 
way. Toward night we had a dress parade. 
She was made daughter of the regiment. She 
made a little speech and there was cemented a 
friendship begun under fire which was destined 
to last to the end of the lives of all participants. 
October 27. Crossing the Potomac at Berlin 
we again entered Virginia marching as far as 
Lovettsville. The next day we were informed 
that the 9th Army Corps had become a part of 
the Army of the Potomac. In the middle of 
the afternoon of the 29th we left camp and 
marched until about sundown. As we passed 
a farmhouse late in the afternoon I noticed 
some boys from companies ahead of us jumping 
over the wall and getting cabbages from a 
patch right beside the road. I followed suit 
and got a good one. Later on as the head of 
the column turned into the field where we were 
to camp for the night, I noticed the major was 
demanding the cabbages from the boys ahead 
of us. I did not like the idea of being cheated 
out of mine, so I out with my big knife, 
halved it and gave one piece to Billy. We had 
no trouble in each of us concealing his half, 
but some one had to have some fun out of it, 
and as we passed, the major piped up, "I say, 

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CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

Tom, what are cabbages worth a pound?" The 
major, I think, took it as a slap at him instead 
of being a little fun among ourselves, for he 
looked as ugly as a meat axe at us, but he did 
not see any cabbages and we did have cabbage 
for supper. The next morning we broke camp 
early and marched along the east side of the 
Blue Ridge mountains as far as Vestal Gap. 
The following day, November 2d, we moved 
along up the valley as far as Snickers Gap, 
where we stayed two days. 

November 4. Reports were flying around 
camp early in the morning that the Johnnies 
were pouring through Ashby's Gap in force and 
that they meant fight. At nine o'clock we 
started for Ashby's Gap, but on our arrival 
there, there was not a Johnnie in sight — another 
of those old-fashioned false reports. We moved 
on as far as Manassas Gap the 5th. All the 
way along as we approached we could hear 
the artillery at the gap. Our men occupied 
the east end and the Confederates the west end. 
Some one said the artillerymen were paying 
their respects to each other. 

November 6. We moved back from the 
mountain range about ten miles to the town of 
Orleans. The next morning we started out 
and marched a few miles, then filed left, crossed 
a narrow field into a piece of woods and stacked 

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WITH McCLELLAN IN MARYLAND 

arms. After sitting around a little while I 
started out to see if I could find a house and 
get something to eat a little out of the ordinary, 
for to be constantly eating hardtack and salt 
horse became a little monotonous after being 
indulged in month after month. 

I passed along through a series of fields on 
high ground, then bearing a little to the right 
passed through a strip of wood from the farther 
side of which a ridge appeared a few rods out 
in the field. When I reached the top of the 
ridge, the looked-for-house appeared in sight 
a few rods down the other slope, and down to 
it I went. When I got within five or six rods 
of the house, a Johnnie came out and walked 
off down towards some wood on the farther 
side of the field. This opened my eyes, and then 
I saw for the first time that that wood down 
there was alive with Johnnies — not an ordi- 
nary picket post but a regiment, or a brigade 
was there. There were tents and camp-fires 
in large numbers. I must have been five or six 
rods from the house, and the wood where the 
Johnnies were, some eight or ten rods beyond, 
when I made this discovery, but this was no 
time to hesitate. 

I walked down to the house and asked the 
woman if she had any corn-bread to sell. She 
said, "No, I have just sold the last I had to one 

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CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

of our men." That "our men" showed me at 
once that she knew who I was. I stepped out 
into the yard, took a look around and sauntered 
back up over the hill again. When I got out 
of sight of the house I quickened my steps until 
I was a good distance from that camp. 

November 8. A change of great importance 
has taken place in the army. General Mc- 
Clellan has been relieved of command of the 
''Army of the Potomac," and General Burn- 
side, the old commander of the 9th Army 
Corps, has been put in his place. 

Here ends the Maryland campaign. We 
shall soon start on a campaign that will be 
known as the Fredericksburg campaign under 
General Burnside. 



100 



Chapter V 
THE FREDERICKSBURG CAMPAIGN 

A hard race for a pig. Chaplain Ball returns home. Picket duty along 
the river. The Battle of Fredericksburg. Burying the dead. Christmas 
revels with the Confederates. A band of horn-blowers. A raid on the 
sutler. A costume ball at Hotel de Ville. 

GENERAL McCLELLAN was relieved 
of command, November 8th, 1862, and 
General A. E. Burnside succeeded him 
in command of the Army of the Potomac. 

The same day we left our camp at Orleans, we 
marched to Jeffersonton and went into camp 
in the village. About twenty men of Company 
K were detailed to go on outpost duty about 
a mile from the center of the town on one of the 
roads leading from it. It was my fortune to be 
one of that detail. We camped near the house 
of a Virginia farmer with whom, during the 
three days we remained there, I came to be on 
very good terms. He was about fifty years 
old, seemed honest and talked freely and fairly 
about the war. He gave me an account of the 
experience he had with "our men, " as he called 
the Confederates. As they were passing his 
place one time, he said to his wife in the morning 
as they began to pass, "Wife, shall we do some- 
thing for these men? They have a hard time 
of it." After some consideration it was agreed 
that he would kill a pig. He would also arrange 

IOI 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

a fire down by the road for doing the frying. 
The house was located back on high ground 
about fifteen rods from the road. The negroes 
were to bake corn bread up at the house and 
carry it down to them at the road. He was to 
fry pig meat and his wife was to make sand- 
wiches and as far as possible she would give 
each soldier a sandwich as he passed by. They 
worked there until nearly night, when a sergeant 
asked him if he had been up to the house lately 
and told him he had better go up. Just back 
of the house was an old road leading off across 
the fields, and beside that old road he found the 
soldiers were working the same scheme, he and 
his wife were carrying out down by the main 
road, the negroes doing the work. They had 
killed another pig, were frying meat, baking 
corn bread, making and passing out the sand- 
wiches, and business was flourishing. 

Toward evening of the nth it was noised 
about that we — our brigade and a battery of 
artillery only were at Jeffersonton — were in an 
exposed position and that we should be ready 
to move at a moment's notice. During the 
first part of the night I was on picket duty 
out on the old road above referred to back of 
the [house. I was lying flat on the ground be- 
hind a rail fence. I saw a man approaching. 
He was coming up that old road. I waited 

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FREDERICKSBURG CAMPAIGN 

until he was about thirty feet from me, then I 
ordered him to halt. He turned and ran like a 
deer. I fired, but I did not stop him. This 
occurred at about ten o'clock. At eleven o'clock 
I was relieved from guard duty and at about 
twelve o'clock we left there and before daylight 
the next morning we were on the other side of 
the Rappahannock. 

During the day (November n), our brigade 
commander had discovered that we were some 
four or five miles in front of the rest of the army 
and in a dangerous position. Longstreet had 
evidently discovered this too, and during the 
day his scouts were finding out how strong we 
were, etc. Had we remained there another 
day we might have had an opportunity to show 
our strength. 

I cannot omit to mention an incident which 
occurred at the last minute just as we left the 
old farmer's place. The farmer and I had been 
rather friendly during our stay there, but he 
had never given me a piece of corn bread to eat, 
or a class of milk to drink, and I was indignant, 
and I determined to get square with him. As 
we were about to leave, I thought of an apple 
tree out back of one of his buildings in which 
a small flock of turkeys roosted nights ; so three 
of us boys went around there and succeeded in 
capturing two of them. They added somewhat 

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CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

to the weight of our luggage, but we had not a 
long march to make and did not mind it. We 
remained in camp all day the 12th, nothing oc- 
curring out of the ordinary. On the afternoon 
of the 13th Billy, Tom and I had gone back 
into the woods a little way out of sight of camp 
to engage in a little hunt for the loathed but 
ever present gray-back. I had finished the 
campaign and was resuming my clothing, Tom 
had entirely redressed, but Billy was still on 
undress duty. Suddenly Billy, whose quickness 
of sight and hearing were remarkable, shouted 
Rebs! Rebs! Down a cross-road along beside 
the woods on our right, a squad of the enemies' 
cavalry hove in sight, they saw us about the 
same time Billy saw them, and started for us. 
I was barefoot, but I ran as best I could carry- 
ing my traps in one hand and holding up my 
unbuttoned trousers with the other. Directly I 
heard a musket shot just behind me, and turned 
to see that Billy in entire undress, had unhorsed 
the leader of the Rebel squad. We ran for all 
we were worth for camp, Billy in his extreme 
undress state bringing up the rear, he never 
was good on the retreat anyway ; as we ran we 
shouted Rebs! The boys soon came pouring 
out of their tents, and the Johnnies seeing 
what they were running into, turned and made 
good their retreat, leaving their wounded com- 

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FREDERICKSBURG CAMPAIGN 

rade behind them. We started down the river 
the 15th, marching along the left bank and on 
the evening of the 18th, went into camp on the 
same field we camped on August 13th, when we 
were on our way to join General Pope. 

November 19. We continued our march down 
the river and toward night went into camp 
opposite Fredericksburg. After supper I noticed 
a lot of the boys down along the river 
bank, and a lot of Johnnies on the other side. 
They were having a good deal of fun jollying 
each other across the river. We remained in 
camp down opposite the city for ten days, 
watching the Rebs as they worked away on 
their entrenchments on the heights back of the 
city. The chaffing of the men on either side 
of the river was early put a stop to. 

The day after we reached Fredericksburg, 
rations being a little short, I thought I would 
go out foraging. I must have gone three 
miles when I saw a pig disappear over a little 
hill about a quarter of a mile ahead of me. I 
chased him for a good mile, gaining on him 
steadily, and as I got up within a few rods of 
him, fired at him twice with my revolver, once 
wounding him, when bang went a carbine and 
over rolled Mr. Pig, dead. Imagine my surprise 
at hearing the carbine so near. I stopped, 
looked around, and behold I had chased the 

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CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

pig right into one of our cavalry outposts and 
one of the men had shot him. It might just 
as well have been a Confederate outpost, for 
I must have been nearly four miles from camp. 
Well, we skinned Mr. Pig, cut off some meat and 
fried it, and we had a good meal, the cavalry- 
men furnishing hardtack. Then we divided 
the rest, the cavalrymen keeping a part, and I 
trudged back to camp with the remainder. 

November 29. We were relieved from duty 
along the river and went into camp with the 
rest of the brigade about a mile and a half 
back from the river on high ground. 

December 1. As the weather grew colder 
many of us set to work to improve our quarters. 
My tent-mate and I raised the walls of our tent 
about two feet high, using three logs of wood 
on each side. At the end opposite the entrance 
we built a fireplace and chimney. The fire- 
place was the most difficult part, as it was im- 
possible to get stone to build with. We were 
thus obliged to use sticks of wood for binding 
material, covering them with mud, otherwise 
we would have had conflagrations constantly. 
Indeed, they did occasionally occur, the wood in 
the walls of the fireplace taking fire. The two 
bunks were placed one on each side, raised a 
foot, or a foot and a half from the ground. An 
open space was thus left from the fireplace to 

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FREDERICKSBURG CAMPAIGN 

the entrance. Our shelter tents were used for 
covering. Two pieces answered for the roof 
and a piece for each end. The pieces of shelter 
tents were square with button holes and buttons 
on every side, so they could be buttoned to- 
gether and make a quite satisfactory covering. 
A little fire in the fireplace and the tent was 
very comfortable. To be sure if the fire was 
allowed to get low or to go out the tent would 
cool off very quickly. The cloth of those shel- 
ter tents was especially good in regard to shed- 
ding water, considering how thin and light it 
was. 

December 4. Chaplain Ball having resigned, 
to our great regret left us for home. When 
I got up the next morning I found it was 
snowing and it was very cold; wasn't I glad to 
have a good bunch of wood under my bunk to 
enable me to have a good fire. There is a lot 
of talk about camp of a battle and on the 9th, 
sixty rounds of cartridges were given each man, 
which looks like business. There was a general 
inspection the 10th and it was to be observed 
that troops were being moved about consider- 
ably. Very early in the morning of the nth 
two heavy guns were fired, and a little later 
our artillery opened fire on the Confederate 
works, all along the line on the other side of 
the river. About half past eight we fell into 
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CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

line and marched down to a point near where the 
engineers were trying to lay a pontoon bridge 
across the river opposite the upper part of the 
city. The men were not able to get more than 
half way across the river on account of the 
Johnnies' sharpshooters concealed in houses 
and other places on the other side of the river, 
who shot down every man who attempted to 
work on the bridge. Early in the afternoon 
General Burnside rode down to the river where 
the men were trying to lay the pontoon bridge. 
He immediately solved the problem. He sug- 
gested that a charge be made across the river 
by men in pontoon boats, and that as soon as 
the boats should reach the other shore, the 
men should form line and advance. Not, how- 
ever, until the boats took over loads of men the 
second time was the advance made. Then they 
formed line and went forward and the sharp- 
shooters were driven from the waterfront. The 
bridge was completed at about four o'clock, 
and troops began to move across the river. The 
city was cleared of Rebels that night, they fall- 
ing back to the heights beyond. We, however, 
went back to our old camp on the east side of 
the river for the night. About noon I went 
over and took a look at the incompleted bridge. 
There were two or three dead men lying 
stretched out at the farther end of the 
1 08 



FREDERICKSBURG CAMPAIGN 

bridge where the Confederate sharpshooters had 
stopped the work. 

General Woodbury with a corps of engineers 
had charge of the laying of the pontoon bridge. 
They were supported by parts of four regi- 
ments — the 7 th Michigan, the 19th and 20th 
Massachusetts, and the 50th New York. The 
men from the 50th New York had charge of the 
boats at the time of the charge, and the attack 
was made by the men from the 7 th Michigan 
and the 19th and 20th Massachusetts. 

December 12. We left camp leisurely and 
marched down to the river, crossed the bridge, 
moved down beside the river and halted. As 
we reached the further end of the bridge, who 
should I find there looking for me, but my 
brother Vertulan. He was assistant surgeon 
of the 19th Massachusetts Regiment, a part 
of which regiment had been in the charge, in 
the boats, the day before, he going over with 
the second lot of boat-loads. 

The early morning was foggy and we got over 
there under cover of the fog without exposure; 
but soon the fog cleared. Then the Johnnies' 
artillerymen had a good view of the approach 
to the bridge for a short distance. They soon 
got their range and were able to drop shells 
in there with considerable accuracy, doing 
more or less damage. We remained there 

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CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

under the river bank all day and all the next 
night. 

December 13. Now comes the fight. About 
ten o'clock we moved out through the city and 
formed line of battle on the other side, and there 
we waited until past noon. Then we moved 
forward. The field across which we charged 
must have been from half to three-quarters 
of a mile wide. Before we reached the foot of 
the range of hills which, at that point were 
called Mary's Heights, we lost heavily in cross- 
ing that field. 

When about half way across the field, Ser- 
geant Collins, the color bearer was mortally 
wounded. Plunket then took the colors and 
a little further along he was wounded in his 
left hand by a minnie ball; in an instant after 
a shell burst right in his face and carried away 
his right hand and forearm, the colors falling 
on his wounded arm and hand. Olney then 
took the colors and carried them through the 
rest of the battle. The blood to be seen on the 
flag in the State House came from Plunket 's 
wounds at that time. 

All along the top of the ridge in our front, the 
enemy's artillery was posted, and at the foot 
of the hill was the infantry. As we reached 
the farther edge of the field just in front of 
the Rebel infantry, we came to a board fence. 

no 



FREDERICKSBURG CAMPAIGN 

We were ordered to lie down behind that fence. 
Then the order was given to fall back behind a 
little ridge and lie down, and there we remained 
the rest of the afternoon firing away whenever 
we saw a man or the head of a man to fire at. 
Late in the afternoon a battery of artillery came 
out and took a position about a quarter of a mile 
in our rear and opened fire on the Johnnies 
directly in our front, firing right over our heads, 
the balls passing so near the sound was anything 
but agreeable. 

Just before we started on the charge, as we lay 
in the field just back of the city, a Company I 
man was killed by having his head carried 
bodily away by a cannon ball, the body rolled 
over, the blood spurted from the neck as water 
comes from a pump, until the heart pumped the 
body dry, the body then settled down a lifeless 
mass. 

The circumstances leading up to this man's 
death were peculiar. He had from the begin- 
ning a presentiment that if he went into a battle 
he should be killed and up to that time he had 
succeeded in evading each fight. This the boys 
did not like, and abuse was heaped upon him 
unmercifully. Soldiers have no respect for a 
man who deserts them in the most trying hour. 
Life thus became so unbearable to him, that as 
it became known there was to be a battle, he 
in 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

wrote his farewell letters to his family at home, 
gave them to his captain, requesting him to 
post them in the event anything happened to 
him. Company I was right near Company K 
at the time, and nearly every one of our boys 
saw him killed, and often afterwards spoke of 
the incident. 

During the afternoon a new regiment was 
sent out to re-inforce us. When they got within 
fifteen or twenty rods of us, they halted and 
opened' fire on the Johnnies through us. 

During the evening we were relieved and went 
back to the city to the place under the river bank 
and had a good supper and a good drink of 
whiskey. It is notorious that not a single 
general officer crossed the river in front of the 
city at the Battle of Fredericksburg. It is 
not strange that General Burnside should have 
failed in command of the Army of the Potomac. 
Any officer who should have succeeded General 
McClellan would have met with the same fate, 
that army was so divided by jealousies and 
partisanship. Army correspondents spoke of 
these strifes and bickerings as notorious and 
scandalous. The efficiency of the command 
was thus seriously impaired by the internal 
dissensions. Before we went to sleep the report 
was circulated about the regiment, that General 
Burnside would lead the 9th Army Corps against 

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FREDERICKSBURG CAMPAIGN 

Mary's Heights the next morning, and Reno's 
old brigade was to have the advance. 

The next day, the 14th, we remained in camp 
down by the riverside all day, and no attack 
was made. In the evening we went back to the 
same part of the battlefield where we had fought, 
relieved some troops there, and we were told we 
were to stay there through the next day and 
that we were to hold that position at all hazards. 
We were about fifteen or eighteen rods from the 
Johnnies' line at the foot of the hill. They 
were behind a line of breastworks; we had 
almost nothing in front of us. The men we 
relieved had dug up a little earth and had 
dragged together a few dead bodies, but only a 
few. As soon, however, as our boys understood 
what was expected of them, they set to work. 
But digging was pretty slow work with the 
ground frozen and nothing but bayonets and 
case knives to dig with. But a good many dead 
men were dragged together, so that some of the 
men had something of a semblance of a pro- 
tection. Thus we prepared for the day, which 
soon came. But it did not seem as if it would 
ever pass. We could not fire a gun. The 
Johnnies might fire as much as they liked. We 
must lie as still as the dead men about us. 
But finally the day did pass, night came on; 
we were able to get up and stretch outselves and 
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CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

shake some of the cold from our half frozen 
bodies. At twelve o'clock we quietly withdrew, 
passed through the city, which was now deserted 
crossed the pontoon bridge and went back to 
our old camp. 

After a great battle there are no end of stories 
of experiences and hair-breadth escapes going 
the rounds of the camp. The following story 
which went the rounds at the time, appealed to 
me and has thus stuck in my memory. A man 
who was in a Massachusetts battery that was in 
Hooker's corps and was engaged around to the 
right of us, on the east side of the heights, had 
an interesting encounter with a Johnnie which 
might have resulted very differently from what 
it did. His duty when in action was to swab 
out the cannon after it was fired, then in loading 
to ram down the cartridge. His position was 
thus near the muzzle of the gun and the most 
advanced of any of the men working the piece. 
The battery took an advanced and an exposed 
position. The Confederates charged on it hoping 
to capture the guns, but the battery mowed 
them down furiously. One Reb, however, 
kept right on, marched right up and made a 
bayonet thrust at him. He turned, parried the 
thrust with his swab, knocking the muzzle 
of the Johnnies' gun down; the bayonet, how- 
ever, went through the thick part of his left 

114 



FREDERICKSBURG CAMPAIGN 

leg just below the knee. At that moment the 
sergeant in command of the gun who stood a 
few feet to the rear, drew his revolver and shot 
the Johnnie who fell to the ground, the stock 
end of the musket going down with him. The 
bayonet sticking through the leg of our friend, 
thus gave him a dreadful twist, but he stooped 
over, picked up the gun and pulled the bayonet 
out of his leg, jumped on to the cannon and as 
the other men had brought up the horses he 
rode away. He thus made his escape and the 
battery lost no guns. 

The morning of the 17 th it was my fortune 
to be one of a detail of fifty men ordered out on 
special fatigue duty. We were marched down 
to the headquarters of the corps guard and 
stayed there all day. At night rations were 
sent down to us, and we slept in one of the guard 
tents that night. The next morning (the 18th) 
we were marched down to the river bank under 
a flag of truce. The Johnnies showed a flag 
of truce on the other side of the river. We got 
into a boat and crossed over. As soon as we 
were on the other side, we learned that we were 
to go up onto the battlefield and bury our dead. 
We marched through the city out onto the very 
field where we had fought, and where we did 
picket duty the 15th, to witness the most 
ghastly, the most shocking, the most humili- 

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CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

ating scene possible. The field was covered with 
dead men. Dead men everywhere, some black 
in the face, most of them had the characteristic 
pallor of death; nearly all had been stripped of 
every article of clothing. All were frozen; some 
with their heads off, some with their arms off, 
some with their legs off, dismembered, torn to 
pieces, they lay there single, in rows, and in 
piles. I did not count them, but there must 
have been three hundred dead men in the row 
behind which we concealed ourselves on the 
15th, a part of which we dragged together the 
night before. Just to the left of our regiment, 
at the time of the fight there stood a brick house. 
From this house, inside and just behind it, we 
carried more than forty dead men. I have 
no idea how many men were lying behind 
the board fence, but there were certainly one- 
quarter of a line of battle — one-half of a single 
line. 

After the Johnnies had got us picks and 
shovels, we set to work to dig in the frozen 
earth the trenches which were to contain the 
men and fragments of men who had given up 
their lives on the plains in front of Mary's 
Heights. We put them in rows, one beside 
the other, wrapped them up in blankets or in 
whatever else we could get to put around them. 
There was practically no means of identifying 

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FREDERICKSBURG CAMPAIGN 

one out of a hundred of them. Thus they lay 
in unknown graves. 

Two long days we worked there tearing a 
trench in the frozen earth and filling it with 
the bodies of frozen men, with nothing to eat 
but what the guards could spare us from their 
scant rations. Our party buried nine hundred 
and eighty-seven men. 

About sundown, our work being finished, we 
went down to the river, crossed over and re- 
turned to camp. Those days at Fredericks- 
burg were among the most disheartening and 
most dreadful I have every known. The 
assault on Mary's Heights was so ill-advised; 
the day's picket duty on the field was so nerve- 
racking; then the two days' work in a half- 
starved condition, burying the dead, a work so 
heartrending at best, was enough to upset 
one's mind if anything could upset it. I do 
not think there were any desertions from our 
regiment during the next month or two, but 
there was a great deal of desertion from the 
army, and it was not to be wondered at. There 
was a general feeling of despondency pervading 
the Army of the Potomac, the feeling was 
deep and wide spread. The conviction was 
general that the men in the ranks were superior 
in intelligence to the southerners and just as 
brave, that the army was better disciplined and 

117 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

much better supplied, that what we lacked was 
leaders, the men were not tired of fighting, 
but they were tired of being sent to the slaugh- 
ter by incompetent generals. From what I 
was able to observe when burying the dead the 
1 8th and 19th, the Rebels were in a happy 
state of mind, they had full confidence in their 
leaders, and perfect faith in the success of their 
cause. With us complaining, scolding and 
faultfinding, was indulged in by all. Croaking 
had become as common as eating and showed 
the moral of the army was depressingly low, 
and had Lee been the general the South believed 
him to be he would have taken Washington 
the summer of 1863. It is reported that there 
were 8000 men absent without leave. This 
campaign and the mud campaign that followed 
it, did one good thing if nothing more, it showed 
those people at the North who were always 
complaining and demanding that the army 
move, how difficult it was to campaign in 
Virginia during the winter season. 

December 20. At about ten o'clock, who 
should appear in camp but my brother, the 
assistant surgeon of the 19th Massachusetts. 
He had come up to see how I had weathered the 
storm. I took him into my tent and we had a 
little talk. I told him about the ordeal we had 
passed through, and he related to me his 

118 



FREDERICKSBURG CAMPAIGN 

experience and his duties in taking care of the 
wounded, and how they were not yet all cared 
for. But he had got away as soon as he could, 
to come up and see how it had gone with me. 
After a short time, he seeing I was unhurt, 
became drowsy, dropped over on my couch 
and in an instant he was fast asleep. I straight- 
ened him out, put my blanket over him and let 
him sleep. He never moved until ten o'clock 
in the evening when as taps were sounded I 
woke him up and he went back to his wounded 
again. 

Doing picket duty down by the river was 
pretty uncomfortable work the last of Decem- 
ber, and the 21st was honored with that 
kind of duty altogether too often. Sitting or 
crouching in those rifle pits, always on watch 
through those long winter nights was pretty 
tough. One night a lot of the boys broke 
into the Lacy house, a fine, large mansion that 
stood a short distance back from the river, and 
tore a pipe organ to pieces, each man taking a 
pipe and the next morning when we returned 
to camp we all played, — perhaps you would 
call it a tune. It may have been amusing to 
the mules in the train parks along the way, 
but judging from the howls that issued from the 
camps we passed, I am not of the opinion that 
it was appreciated by the men. But it afforded 

119 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

us some amusement and what did we care for 
mules' ears or men's ears, for that matter? 
If they did not like our music they could stuff 
cotton-batting in their ears. 

A captain of one of the companies was given 
a furlough about this time and went home for a 
time. When he returned he wore a brand new 
coat with shoulder straps of the recruiting 
officer's size. He marched around the camp 
with an air of great importance. One day, 
one of the boys of his company did some little 
thing not to his liking and that man was tied 
up by the thumbs. This was so uncalled for 
and so unjust, it caused a very bitter feeling 
against the officer throughout the company. 
Practically every man in the company became 
his enemy. He realized the existence of this 
feeling and soon after resigned and went home. 
It was freely remarked in the regiment that the 
officer referred to did not dare to go into another 
fight with that company. And since the war 
he has never, to my knowledge attended a 
reunion of the regimental association. 

December 22. We were on picket again. 
The evening of the 23d, there occurred the most 
important social function of the season. We 
had a fancy dress ball at the Hotel de Ville, or 
in other words in the sutler's tent. All the 
quality of the regiment was present. The 

120 



FREDERICKSBURG CAMPAIGN 

belles of the evening were Miss Huggins, the 
Widow Blush, Miss Lumpkins, Mrs. Austin 
and Miss Blinks all of Worcester, Mass. Miss 
Blinks wore an elegant wreath of birch leaves. 
Her gown was red and white, the red being part 
of a red woolen shirt furnished by one of the 
friends of the lady. Miss Lumpkins was a 
beautiful creature, her complexion of dark 
bronze contrasting finely with the grass green 
color of her dress; she wore a wreath made of 
wheat and white clover blossoms. Miss 
Huggins, was a little undignified in her actions. 
Her dress was thought by some to be decidedly 
low at the top and high at the bottom, however, 
she passed as it was understood that women in 
high society are expected to make the most of 
their charms. Her dress was sky blue and her 
apron an American flag; she wore no corsets, 
thus her body appeared a little flabby. The 
lady in whom we all felt the liveliest interest 
was the widow. She had all the grace and ele- 
gance of a duck, her style was simply enchant- 
ing. She wore a bright red dress, low-necked, 
with a white rosette at her belt, with large 
hoops that bounded around in the most wonder- 
ful way. Her extreme modesty was remarked by 
all the gentlemen ; whenever she danced she was 
the center of attraction. The ball was a strictly 
private affair, no commissioned officers were 

121 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

allowed to take part. A few newspaper men 
were invited and enjoyed the fun. They 
declared that as women have ere this dressed 
in men's clothes there was no reason the 
boot should not be put on the other foot. 
Mrs. Austin's dance of the schottische with 
double-soled cavalry boots was excellent; she 
was a well-known auctioneer in the city of 
Worcester. 

December 24. Again on picket duty. It 
was a lively night on the other side of the river, 
innumerable camp fires and firing of guns. 
The Rebs were making it lively at their Christ- 
mas revels. Afterwards we heard of an inter- 
esting affair, a part of which occurred that 
same evening. At Rocky Ford up the river a 
little way above Falmouth, there was a detail 
of cavalry permanently located. Through 
trading coffee, tobacco and sugar our boys 
had become quite a little acquainted with the 
Johnnies on the other side of the river, and 
when Christmas time came the Confederates 
invited a number of them over to celebrate 
Christmas with them. The boys accepted the 
invitation and went over, had a fine time, were 
well entertained and got back without anything 
happening to mar the pleasure. A few days 
later when New Years came, our boys returned 
the compliment and invited the Johnnies over 
122 



FREDERICKSBURG CAMPAIGN 

to spend New Years with them. Everything 
went finely until late in the evening when who 
should walk into the tent but the officer of the 
day, then the deuce was to pay. The Rebs 
were marched off to headquarters, but our boys 
would not allow the thing to end that way, 
went with them to headquarters, explained the 
whole matter, taking all the responsibility, and 
the affair was dropped. The Johnnies were 
allowed to return but they were all told they 
must not do so any more. 

December 25. We all went down to the 
railroad and saw our wounded boys off, Tom 
Plunket among them. They were to be taken 
to a hospital in Washington. Reports of another 
grand move were being circulated about camp 
now every day. General Burnside reviewed the 
9th Army Corps, January 6th. It was a wet, 
cold, horrid day and very little enthusiasm was 
manifest. January 7th we went on picket down 
by the river again, but it has become less 
trying than it was earlier in the winter. We 
were not obliged to stay concealed in our rifle 
pits so closely. Walking about on both sides 
of the river by our men and by the Johnnies, 
had become quite common and no firing was 
indulged in. ( 

January 16. We received cartridges and 
extra rations and orders were given to be in 
123 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

readiness to move. Something was evidently 
in the wind. 

January 18. Troops were moving up the 
river. Lee's left flank was to be attacked by 
Hooker and Franklin. But the troops did not 
get far. A heavy rain-storm had set in and the 
artillery was stuck in the mud. A regiment 
which was stuck right beside our camp, knowing 
we belonged to Burnside' s army corps, would 
every once in a while make a diversion and give 
three groans for General Burnside. As we were 
comfortable in our tents and they were without 
tents, out there in the rain and mud, we pitied 
the poor devils rather than resented their taunts. 

At three a.m., the 19th, reveille was sounded. 
We got up and packed our knapsacks. But we 
got no further. The order was countermanded 
and we went on picket duty once more. The 
morning of the 2 2d before we went back to 
camp, the Johnnies built a big sign board and 
painted on it in letters that could be read a mile 
away, " Burnside Stuck in the Mud." On our 
way back to camp that day we passed guns and 
baggage wagons still stalled in the mud. Dur- 
ing the day orders were given to return to camp, 
and as those men who had been out in the storm 
wet to their skins for forty-eight hours, covered 
with mud, with misery and disgust painted on 
every face, plodded their way back |to their 

124 



FREDERICKSBURG CAMPAIGN 

camps, they made a picture of army life never 
to be forgotten. 

Soon after ten o'clock on the night of the 
23d, a sutler who was established near our 
corps, was charged, his tent was torn down 
and his goods confiscated to the last cookie. 
The owner (an ex-cavalry officer) made a great 
defence, wounding some of the boys. But 
what could one man do with one little revolver, 
when faced by two or three hundred veterans 
of many a bloody military and whiskey cam- 
paign? He was overpowered by the gallant 
veterans and forced to flee for his life. Of 
course the guard appeared after the mischief 
was done, the battle won and the wolves had 
gone to their dens. 

The last of November when we were relieved 
from duty down by the river and went into camp 
back on high ground, from what we could see no 
one would imagine there were ten thousand men 
within ten miles of our camp. The country all 
about there was sparsely populated, and as 
one looked out on the landscape from that high 
ground, practically all he saw was woods. 
How different the aspect two months later as 
we were about to leave there? As far as the 
eye could reach all one could see was parks of 
military trains, parks of artillery, and camps 
of armies. Every tree had disappeared, yes, 
125 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

every stump and every root had been dug out 
of the ground and used to keep that army 
warm during those winter months. How re- 
markable the change, it could not be witnessed 
without wonderment. 

February 6. Orders came for the regiment 
to be ready to move at a moment's notice with 
three days' rations in haversacks, and the next 
day we took train for Aquia Creek; arriving 
there about noon we went immediately on board 
the steamboat "Louisiana' ' the 9th. We steamed 
down the Potomac arriving at Fortress Monroe 
the next morning. Not until the nth did we 
go ashore, then we landed at Fortress Monroe, 
marched over to Newport News and went into 
camp in a horrid rain, only a short distance 
from the place where we camped the previous 
summer. It was a beautiful place and later on 
as the weather became warmer we enjoyed it 
very much. We were reviewed the 25th by our 
new corps commander, Baldy Smith. 

We were at Newport News six weeks. We 
were heartily glad to be away from the jealous, 
political schemers so prevalent in the Army of 
the Potomac. There was a fine, loyal and 
friendly spirit among the men of the 9th 
Army Corps; we had learned to fight together, 
and confidence in, and respect for, each other 
was universal. 

126 



Chapter VI 
PLAYING SOLDIER IN KENTUCKY 

Our breakfast at Baltimore. The trip west. The Reception at Mt. 
Sterling. Moved into the town. 

THE early spring of 1863 , found us at New- 
port News awaiting orders. Finally, on 
March 18th, orders came and on the 
19th, the 1st Division went on board transports. 
March 26. We went on board the steamer 
"Kennebeck" during the forenoon, and in the 
afternoon started for Baltimore. In the early 
morning of the 27 th we steamed into the riarbor 
of that city. The 2d Maryland was in the 
1st Division and it was a Baltimore regiment. 
It had passed through the city just ahead of 
us and had arranged with its friends there, to 
be on the lookout for the 21st when we came 
along and see that we had a good breakfast. 
Well, there was nothing for sale at any of the 
restaurants near the wharf to members of the 
21st, but we were all treated to as good a 
breakfast as any fellow could wish for. The 
editor of the Baltimore American, whom we 
had become acquainted with when doing 
picket duty on the railroad near Annapolis 
Junction, in the autumn of 1861, was there to 
welcome us. After breakfast we fell in line, 
marched up to the office of the Baltimore 
127 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

American and the band played all the national 
airs. Every one made a speech. We gave 
three cheers and a tiger a number of times and 
then we marched back to the wharf again. 
This reception was arranged for by the 2d 
Maryland, in memory of the Pollocksville 
breakfast we gave them May 17th, 1862, down 
in North Carolina. We did not leave Baltimore 
until the next morning (the 28th), when just 
at dawn we steamed away and on through 
Harrisburg, Pa., and Altoona, where we were 
given a fine supper at midnight. 

At Pittsburgh, on the 29th, we were marched 
to a public hall and given a fine reception; 
left in the morning for Cincinnati. On the 
way, at Coshocton, Ohio, we were received with 
great cordiality by the people, were given a 
fine breakfast and the tables were waited on by 
as handsome a lot of young ladies as can be 
seen anywhere. We reached Columbus, Ohio, 
early in the afternoon of the 30th. We were 
cordially received there and furnished coffee 
and sandwiches. After this was all over and 
the people who had furnished the lunch had 
gone home, the train remaining in the railroad 
station, some of the boys wandered up into 
the town to see the capitol buildings and any- 
thing else of interest. A little way up a guard 
was encountered, refusing the boys admission 

128 



PLAYING SOLDIER IN KENTUCKY 

to the town. After some bantering the guard 
opened fire on the boys, killing two and wound- 
ing a number of others. This so enraged the 
boys that there was a general rush for their 
guns, and had not the officers been on hand at 
the time there would have been a lot of blood 
spilled. The boys were got on to the train and 
we left the town as soon as possible. 

The guard that opened fire on our boys was 
a detail from a new regiment of Ohio soldiers. 
How a lot of new soldiers doing ordinary guard 
duty in a city like that were given loaded mus- 
kets was impossible to understand. We reached 
Cincinnati at two o'clock the next morning, 
March 3 1st. We marched to the Market House 
where we received a good breakfast and cordial 
greeting from the people. While there, we 
learned that we were assigned to the 'Army of 
the Ohio" and that General Burnside had been 
put in command of the " Department of the 
Ohio." In the middle of the day we crossed 
the river and took train for Paris, Ky., arriv- 
ing there in the early morning of April 1st. We 
went into camp and remained there three days. 

April 3d. We marched to Mt. Sterling, a 
distance of twenty-two miles. Here, we were 
to do frontier duty, assisting in protecting the 
people of Kentucky from raids by Confederate 
cavalry and guerrillas which had become very 

129 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

common. The march to Mt. Sterling was 
through the blue grass region and over a fine 
turnpike — the first fine road we had seen since 
leaving New England. Mt. Sterling is the 
county town of Montgomery County and has 
about 3000 inhabitants. But as we marched 
through the town we saw not one of the 3000. 
The streets were deserted, the blinds on the 
windows were closed and the doors barred. 
We marched on through the village out on one 
of the main roads and went into camp. A 
strong guard was put around the camp and no 
one was allowed to go in town. 

During the evening the day after we reached 
Mt. Sterling, the cavalry pickets were driven 
in by a guerrilla band, but they got no farther 
than our picket post. There they came to a 
very sudden stop. The next day we changed 
camp, going to a large pasture on high ground 
finely drained and with a grove of beautiful 
trees in it, about a mile from town. 

The reason for the cold reception we received 
from the people of Mt. Sterling on our arrival 
there, was because we were from the black 
abolition state of Massachusetts. They pre- 
ferred, we were told, to remain unguarded 
rather than be guarded by Massachusetts men. 
However, it was our fortune to see a most 
remarkable change in the sentiment of the 
130 



PLAYING SOLDIER IN KENTUCKY 

people toward us in a very short time. Colonel 
Clark, the commander of the regiment, was an 
Amherst professor, a man of intellect and 
culture, and a man of an exceptionally fine 
presence. He was a fine example of New 
England culture and must have made a superior 
impression on the leading men of the towli and 
county. As soon as we reached there a strong 
guard was put on the court house, the jail and 
every other public building and piece of public 
property that required guarding. Not a sol- 
dier was allowed in the village excepting the 
guards on duty; no one was allowed to touch 
anything he did not buy and pay for in the 
regular way. Raiding the town by guerrillas 
was stopped, perfect order was maintained. 
And as a result on the 17th we were invited, 
by the civil authorities, to move down into the 
village and camp in the beautiful grounds in 
front of the court house ; and there we remained 
until early in July. 

This period of three months was the most 
delightful period we had during the war. It 
was a veritable campaign of peace. Confidence 
returned to the people of Mt. Sterling, the 
court held its regular sessions, a thing that had 
not been done since the war broke out. We 
were paid off; money was spent freely and 
Mt. Sterling put on her holiday attire. After 
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CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

we moved down into the court house grounds 
there was no guard kept around the camp, the 
boys were allowed to go and come as they 
pleased so long as they behaved themselves 
and were present at roll-call. In a short time 
they became acquainted with the people of the 
village and in the country around. They used 
to wander off into the country for miles, call 
at the farmers' houses, and buy things to eat. 
In this way they became acquainted in fami- 
lies, and those acquaintances in many in- 
stances ripened into friendships. A Company 
E man and I went off into the country one day 
some three or four miles. We came to a medium- 
sized, pleasantly situated house, with a lot of 
hens in the yard. We thought this our oppor- 
tunity to get some eggs, which was our errand, 
and walked up to the door and knocked. We 
were invited in. As we were buying our eggs 
two young ladies appeared. We did not feel like 
rushing away then, although the girls were a 
little slighting in their answers to questions 
and in speaking of the Confederates referred 
to them as ''our men." In the course of the 
conversation it was disclosed that they had 
relations in the Confederate army. However, 
the girls were young and attractive and we did 
not hurry. There was a piano in the room and 
my friend suggested that one of them favor 
132 



PLAYING SOLDIER IN KENTUCKY 

us with a selection. The younger one, a girl 
about twenty, sat down and played ''Dixie" and 
"My Maryland." As she finished she swung 
around on her chair and glanced at each of 
us in a way that said, what do you think of that. 
We complimented her and asked her to play 
the "Star Spangled Banner," and "Columbia, 
the Gem of the Ocean" which she did as a favor. 
My friend then asked her to play the Mar- 
sellaise. She did not recognize it. Would he 
hum it ? — she might remember it. He hummed 
it, but it was evident she did not know it. 
Finally, she said in a rather saucy way, "Why 
don't you play it yourself?" He said he would 
if it was agreeable. A plainly dressed private 
soldier sat down to the piano but from that 
moment the instrument seemed inspired. He 
played the Marsellaise," "The Watch on the 
Rhine;" then he played a number of selections 
of dance music from Strauss and other things. 
If he stopped they would say, "Oh don't stop, 
play something else." For nearly an hour he 
played ahead — those people and I as well 
were charmed; it was interesting to see those 
girls glance at each other and at their mother 
at times when the music was especially inter- 
esting. When finally he did stop, the saucy 
distant airs of the girls were gone, they had 
become our friends. We were then less dis- 
133 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

posed than before to leave, and when we did 
go it was with the understanding that we 
would come again and in future buy all our 
hens' eggs from them. 

We did no drilling while there. Our princi- 
pal duties were picketing the roads leading into 
the town from the south, east and west, keep- 
ing the brass plates on our accoutrements and 
our shoes, well polished. Reports of guerrillas 
being in adjoining towns reached us from time 
to time, but as those men never really wanted to 
fight, but only to steal, they never approached 
very near Mt. Sterling. 

In talking with one of the Union men of the 
village one day about the people who were in 
sympathy with the South he said, "Zeek Jones 
over there was until lately one of the biggest 
Rebels in the blue grass region; he preached it 
and he sung it until the Rebel cavalry came 
along and bought out all his horned cattle, 
horses, potatoes and general truck and paid 
him in Confederate money; then he sung a 
new tune — he's been cursing them ever since. 
He sits up nights to swear about them. Noth- 
ing like that to bring a man around, stranger," 
and the old man haw-hawed right heartily. 

About a mile from the village on one of the 
roads leading from it, a picket post had pitched 
its tent near what appeared to be some deserted 

134 



PLAYING SOLDIER IN KENTUCKY 

buildings. At night there issued from the house 
the most delightful music. The unknown singer 
had a contralto voice, with all the richness of 
tone of the most highly trained prima donna. 
For three successive evenings there poured 
forth from the house a concert the like of which 
those soldiers had never heard. On the third 
night one of the boys could endure it no longer, 
his curiosity had got the best of him. He 
approached the building, climbed over the 
garden wall, passed around the house, and, lo, 
there was an open window. He stole up to it 
and peeped in. The room was full of music. 
For a moment he was lost in the splendor of the 
tones, when lo, upon the kitchen table sat a 
colored girl singing as if her heart would burst. 
As she sang she scoured her dishes. She saw 
him! He dropped and slunk away. "Go 
way dar you soger man, or I'll let fly de frying 
pan at you head. You mustn't stan dar peeking 
at dis yer chile." The romantic vision was dis- 
pelled. The soldier stole back to his compan- 
ions, but that entrancing music was never heard 
to issue from that house again. 

Once we marched to Paris and once to Sharps- 
burg to attack guerrillas, but in each instance 
when we reached the place the guerrillas had 
disappeared. 

Twice we were ordered away, but each time 
135 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

the people sent to headquarters extensively 
signed petitions praying that we might remain 
there a little longer. And stay we did until the 
corps was nearly ready to march into Tennessee, 
and the capture of the hearts of two Kentucky 
belles of the blue grass region, by men of the 
2 1 st were among the results of our campaign 
in Kentucky. 

July 6. With sincere regret we said good- 
bye to our many friends at Mt. Sterling and 
marched to Lexington. The farmers of the vi- 
cinity showed the sincerity of their regard for 
us by turning out with their teams and carry- 
ing our knapsacks the whole thirty-three miles. 
It was a sweltering hot day, and in our un- 
trained condition it was all we could stand. 
As we reached Lexington we found the streets 
filled with farmers and their stock, they having 
come to town to escape from a guerrilla band 
that was reported to be in the vicinity. But 
we were there in time and the guerrillas did 
not attempt to enter the town. We went into 
camp in a large field near Fort Clay. The 
1 6th we changed camp, going to a beautiful 
grove near the Lexington cemetery. Here we 
remained until we started for Tennessee. 



136 



Chapter VII 
THE CAMPAIGN IN TENNESSEE 

We crossed the Cumberland Range. The patient mule. Seeing a 
railroad engine with a train of cars make a dive. The siege of Knoxville. 
"Will you lend me my Nigger, Colonel?" Re-enlistment. Recrossed the 
Mountains, returning to Kentucky on the way home, on our re-enlistment 
furlough. 

WE remained in camp near the Lexing- 
ton cemetery at Lexington, just one 
month, until August 12, 1863, when 
we made our first start for Tennessee. We 
took train for Nicholas ville, then marched to 
Camp Nelson, where we went into camp, and 
stayed another month having a delightful time 
in that most healthy and beautiful place. 

September 1 2 . We started in good earnest on 
our march over the mountains but went only as 
far as Camp Dick Robinson. As we went into 
camp we were drenched by a fearful thunder 
storm, hailstones falling the size of marbles. 
The next day we made a good day's march 
passing through the town of Lancaster. The 
14th we passed through the village of Crab 
Orchard, camping for the night a little way 
beyond the town. 

The 15th we remained in camp, but the 16th 
we moved on a good distance in spite of the 
dreadful roads, along the sides of which lay nu- 
merous wrecks of army wagons, dead mules, etc. 

137 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

We were then getting into the foothills of the 
Cumberland range, and also into the abode of 
the rattlesnake, a number having been seen 
the last day or two. Colonel Hawks made an 
interesting discovery as he started to retire last 
night. He found a rattlesnake about two feet 
and a half long comfortably coiled up in his 
blankets, that was not the kind of bedfellow 
the colonel was looking for, and he was des- 
patched at short notice. The 17th we met a 
lot of Confederate prisoners being taken to the 
rear. They had been captured at Cumberland 
Gap. They were about the dirtiest and most 
repulsive looking lot of men I have ever seen. 
We climbed Wildcat Mountain, a hill so steep 
it did not seem as if the trains could ever get 
up it; but by going slow and with a good 
deal of pushing and pulling by the boys they 
did succeed in reaching the top without accident. 
We passed through the town of Loudon and 
B arbour sville, and September 21st crossed the 
Cumberland River at Cumberland Ford. 

September 2 2 . We passed through Cumber- 
land Gap. Two days' march brought us to 
the Clinch River, which we forded. Fording 
rivers and some of them pretty deep ones, was a 
new experience for us, but before we left East 
Tennessee we had learned that lesson, — if ex- 
perience will teach a lesson, — pretty thoroughly. 

138 



THE CAMPAIGN IN TENNESSEE 

September 25. We crossed the Clinch range, 
the descent from which on the south side was 
dreadfully steep. Ropes were tied to the wag- 
ons and they were held back by the boys and 
prevented from tipping over. Thus they were 
eased down and reached the foot of the hill 
safely. Along the foot of the hill lay wagons 
and dead mules by the dozen, a whole line of 
them extending all along around the foot of the 
hill. 

September 26. Lunched at the famous and 
glorious Panther Spring. What a spring ! The 
water is as clear as crystal and enough of it 
to make a river ten feet wide and three feet 
deep. We continued our march through New- 
market and Strawberry Plains, reaching the 
immediate vicinity of Knoxville the 28th. 

A word must be said right here about the 
unpretending, never-flinching army mule. I 
do not believe we shall ever know how much we 
owe to that toughest and most patient creature. 
We had seen the mule at his ordinary army work 
in Virginia, which was well nigh play compared 
with the work he was called upon to do, the 
hardships he was obliged to endure and the 
sacrifices he was forced to make in that ad- 
vance over the mountains into Tennessee. 

His rations were always short, his load a 
heavy one, and he was asked to haul it over 

139 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

roads, the wretchedness of which can not be 
described nor can it be imagined by any one 
who has not been in a similar place. It is almost 
literally true that the whole line of march 
from Camp Nelson to Knoxville was strewn 
with his dead comrades; what one of the boys 
said in that connection as we reached Knoxville 
was not wide of the mark, namely, that he could 
in the darkest night smell out his way back to 
Camp Nelson by the odor of the dead mules 
lying along the way. Granted he had his 
peculiarities, so had Caesar his. His voice was 
peculiar, he was very handy with his heels, but 
he could make a supper out of a rail fence, a 
breakfast out of a pair of cowhide boots, and 
pull his load along through the day without a 
murmur. To me he was as near being the 
martyr of the Tennessee campaign as the men 
who fought the battles. 

We had been at Knoxville but a few days 
when news came in that the Rebels were advanc- 
ing from the northeast from the vicinity of 
Lynchburg down the valley, thus threatening 
our communications in the vicinity of Morris- 
town, and Cumberland Gap. On the 4th of 
October we took the train for Morristown. From 
there we marched to Blue Springs, where we 
had a little brush with the Johnnies October 
10th. They were soon put to rout and we 
140 



THE CAMPAIGN IN TENNESSEE 

started back to Knoxville. We were sixty 
miles from Morristown, but in three days we 
were back there again and took train to Knox- 
ville, where we arrived the 15th. In this cam- 
paign we saw plenty of marching but no real 
fighting, and got well soaked two different 
times. We remained quietly in camp at Knox- 
ville until October 2 2d. Then, however, pros- 
pects suddenly became good for an active cam- 
paign. Longstreet, with an army of 20,000 men, 
one of the fine army corps of the Army of 
Northern Virginia, was approaching Knoxville 
from Chattanooga and in the evening we took 
train and went down the valley as far as Loudon 
to meet him and dispute his advance. We 
reached Loudon about midnight and bivouacked 
in a large meadow on the south side of the 
Holston River. Before morning a cold rain- 
storm came on, making life for a couple of days 
about as miserable as it could well be. Our 
tents arrived the 24th, when we crossed to the 
north side of the river and went into camp. 

The 28th, the Johnnies made a spirited at- 
tack on our boys, driving in the pickets. We 
took up the pontoon bridge and fell back to 
Lenoir. What a job we- had carrying those 
great heavy boats to the railroad station a good 
fourth of a mile. Government mule-teams were 
there by the dozen, still we were called upon 
141 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

to lug those boats such a distance. While we 
were moving the pontoon boats, an interesting 
thing occurred. A railroad train that had been 
captured was run off a wrecked railroad bridge 
into the Holston River. The bridge was a 
high one, thirty or forty feet, and it was an in- 
teresting sight to see the train make the plunge 
and disappear entirely from view in the river. 

November 10. I commenced building winter 
quarters. A number of the boys had begun to 
cut logs for the same purpose, as it was thought 
we might stay at Lenoir through the winter. 
The nth we marched back to Loudon and 
covered the laying of the pontoon bridge, re- 
turning to Lenoir in the evening. At daybreak, 
the morning of the 14th, we were routed out, 
struck tents and formed line in the quickest 
possible time. Our outposts were being driven 
in and we could hear the crack of the rifles and 
see the smoke from them out on the meadow as 
we moved out of camp. The Johnnies' line of 
battle came into view directly and we realized 
we were in for some fighting at short notice; 
we had not been badly surprised, but danger- 
ously near it. 

At this time the climax was reached in an ex- 
perience we had with a recruit that came to us 
during the Maryland campaign about the time 
of the Battle of South Mountain, I think. He 

142 



THE CAMPAIGN IN TENNESSEE 

was a deacon in the Baptist church. Two or 
three times during the campaign, when we were 
in camp, the evening being quiet and favorable, 
our newcomer would kneel down in his tent and 
make a prayer. He would pray for the nation, 
for the cause for which we were fighting, for 
the President and for all the boys. At such 
times the boys would keep very quiet and be 
very respectful. Everything went along all 
right until the Battle of Fredericksburg, when 
we did picket duty among our dead the second 
day after the battle. It was discovered that 
our friend, the deacon, came off the field that 
night with his pockets full of watches he had 
taken from our dead comrades. Now there 
was an unwritten law in the army that no man 
should rifle the pockets of our own dead; he 
might take all he could get from the enemy's 
dead, but our own dead were sacred, and in- 
violate, and any man found breaking that law 
was despised. The deacon, however, felt him- 
self pretty independent. He was well-to-do; 
he always had money and received many use- 
ful things from home — like gloves, socks, fine 
high boots, and he had a set of false teeth set 
in a gold plate. He did not make any prayers 
for the public benefit for quite a while after the 
Fredericksburg affair, but when he did make 
one, the company street for a minute or two 
143 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

was as quiet as death; then all at once the old 
truck began to arrive on the deacon's tent. 
Empty tin cans, tin cups, empty whiskey bottles, 
old shoes, anything in the way of rubbish that 
could be found, suddenly found its way to the 
deacon's tent. Well, that prayer was brought 
to a very sudden close and it was never repeated. 
As we moved out at daybreak, the morning of 
November 14th, things looked about as dark 
as most of us cared to have them. But some of 
those boys were never disturbed at anything, 
and remembering the deacon one of them piped 
up, "I say, Billy, if old blank should get hit 
now, what should you go for?" "I should go 
for his teeth," said Billy. "What should you 
go for, Tom?" "I should go for his boots." 
"What should you go for, Gus?" "I should go 
for his gloves?" — this at a time when most of 
the boys felt funny if they ever did, the deacon 
right among the very fellows who were ready 
to pick his bones. We succeeded in stopping 
the Johnnies. Indeed, that attack proved to be 
only a feint and during the day our trains and 
artillery started towards Knoxville. Not until 
the evening of the 15th did we start back, then 
during one of the darkest nights and over one 
of the muddiest roads imaginable, we floundered 
along, reaching Campbells Station a little be- 
fore morning. At dawn we were thrown out 

144 



THE CAMPAIGN IN TENNESSEE 

on to the Kingston road. We were there none 
too soon. Within a half hour after we were in 
position, Longstreet's advance came in sight. 
Longstreet's feint at Lenoir was evidently 
made in the hope of holding us there until he 
could reach Campbell's Station, thus placing 
himself between Burnside and Knoxville. We 
changed position twice during the day, but did 
little fighting in either. The fighting was done 
in the beginning by the cavalry and later by 
the artillery, we falling back from ridge to 
ridge and keeping pretty well out of it. That 
night was cold and rainy and as dark as a pocket, 
and it was a difficult matter to make a thirteen- 
mile march. However, we reached Knoxville 
in the early morning of the 17th, and immedi- 
ately set to work throwing up fortifications. 

Knoxville is located on the north bank of the 
Holston River, on high ground elevated about 
one hundred feet above the general level of 
the valley. It was thus easily defended with 
a small force and our water supply was secure. 
The location of the 21st during the siege was 
on the north side of the city. We were a little 
short of rations; indeed, we were on half rations 
the whole time. However, I was a very good 
forager and managed to have enough to eat 
most of the time. One time I succeeded in 
picking up a pair of geese out in the country. 

145 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

At another time I got a tub of lard and a fine 
smoked ham. On another raid I got a barrel 
of flour. To cook the flour I was obliged to 
pay $2.00 for a package of baking powder 
worth ordinarily fifteen or twenty cents. The 
following story was brought over from the 
51st New York one day during the siege. The 
regimental teams had been out foraging two or 
three days before. Some negroes belonging to 
Miss Palmer had deserted their mistress and 
followed the teams back to camp. A few days 
later Miss Palmer rode into camp and inquired 
for the colonel. The colonel appeared, tipped 
his hat politely and placed himself at her serv- 
ice. "Colonel," said she, "your men have 
been over to our town and stole all my niggers 
and I have just ridden over to camp to see if 
you will be kind enough to lend me my blacks- 
smith to shoe this horse." The colonel assisted 
her in alighting, had her boy hunted up, and 
set him to work shoeing her horse. 

While in a store a day or two ago, buying a 
pair of gloves, the cry of fire was heard outside 
on the street, and going to the door there could 
be seen smoke issuing from the windows on 
the opposite side of the street and soon the 
flames burst forth. The fire spread to other 
buildings and it looked for a short time as if 
nothing could save the city. A New York 

146 



THE CAMPAIGN IN TENNESSEE 

regiment chanced to be near by and went to 
the assistance of the fire department. That 
regiment contained a large number of firemen 
from New York City. They knew how to fight 
a city fire and in a very short time the fire was 
under control. In the afternoon as our relief 
picket, to which I belonged, was on the way to 
its post, we passed through the town, I saw one 
of our boys who was enjoying General Pope's 
General Order No. 10 to the full. He was 
floating along down the street still able to keep 
his feet, but not his balance. He had on a 
white masonic apron and a bright red scarf 
under his belt. As we passed him he halted, 
faced to the front and presented arms with so 
much swiftness he lost his balance and went 
sprawling out on the sidewalk. Poor fellow, 
he meant all right ; he wanted to be very respect- 
ful and very military, but was a little too top- 
heavy to carry the thing out well. He had, 
I expect, been to the fire. When out foraging 
on the south side of the river one time, I came 
across in one of the huts of the negro quarters, 
quite a handsome young mulatto woman with 
her children. They were all quite well dressed. 
The children, however, were noticeably lighter 
in color than their mother. She was evidently 
the favorite domestic of the house and was as 
bitter a Yankee hater as any of the white women. 

i47 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

She declared the colored people did not want 
to be niggers for the Yankees. I wondered if 
I could not understand why she was content 
with her life there. 

There was picket firing most of the time and 
two hot engagements during the eighteen days 
of the siege. On November 17th, General 
Sanders was heavily engaged on the extreme 
left over next to the river. November 29th, 
Longstreet attacked Fort Sanders furiously. 
That fort was only a little way round to our left 
but we were not engaged. The Johnnies got 
something of a surprise in that attack. When 
the siege begun it was all wood in front of the 
fort; but by the time of the attack the trees 
had all been cut down, leaving the stumps three 
to four feet high, then telegraph wire was 
strung from stump to stump all along the front. 
When the Johnnies reached that part of the 
field they were very badly broken up and lost 
much of their force. That was the first place 
where telegraph wire was used as an obstruction 
to an advancing column, so far as I know. 
Eight or ten months later at Petersburg barbed 
wire was used extensively, and in the present 
war in Europe we hear a great deal about its 
being used. 

The night of the 23 d, our boys were driven 
from their rifle pits down in front of the main 
148 



THE CAMPAIGN IN TENNESSEE 

line of fortifications. The next night about 
three o'clock we were routed out and went down 
to the left of the rifle pits, and at daylight made 
a charge and took them back again. There 
was another regiment went with us on that 
charge. The rifle pits had been taken possession 
of by a regiment of South Carolina sharp- 
shooters, and if they had been able to hold 
them they could have raked the edge of the 
city and two or three streets. 

December 3. The scouts brought in word 
that Longstreet had given up the siege and was 
preparing to withdraw from our front; and the 
next day it was reported that the Johnnies were 
really moving off to the right up the valley. 
On the 5th, a party of us boys went over and 
took a look at the Johnnies' camp and works. 
There was a good deal of camp refuse lying 
around. The weather was getting very cold. 

The 7th. We started after Longstreet, go- 
ing toward Morris town. We marched up to 
the vicinity of Blaine's cross-roads and stayed 
there until we re-enlisted. It was a cold, hard 
time we had those days. My feet were cold 
all the time. I was not comfortably warm for 
a number of days, and rations were dreadfully 
short. Some of the time we had nothing to 
eat but corn on the cob. We roasted that and 
eat it and it kept us from starvation. The 
149 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

gth, I helped to catch a pig, but it was very 
small. There was not much meat on it. 

December 24. The order concerning re-en- 
listment was read to a part of the regiment, 
the other part of the regiment was off on picket 
duty. When the question of re-enlistment was 
put to the boys there was a good deal of hesi- 
tation. A few only put up their hands. The 
idea of going home on a furlough for thirty 
days was a strong inducement, but the con- 
ditions under which we were living at the time 
were unfavorable. December 26. Our supply 
train was captured out in the vicinity of the 
gap with all our hardtack, sugar and coffee, 
etc. Re-enlistment was growing popular. I 
re-enlisted to-day. The temperature hovered 
around the freezing point. One hour it rained, 
another hour it snowed or the moisture fell in 
a sort of sleet. We were camping in a little 
hollow in the wood sloping towards the south. 

December 28. It was reported that two- 
thirds of the men of the regiment had re-en- 
listed. That proportion was sufficient to en- 
able the regiment to go home, as a regiment, on 
veteran furlough. It was reported about camp 
that the 21st was the first regiment in the 
9th Army Corps to report thus re-enlisted. 

January 6, 1864. Orders came directing that 
we be in readiness to start for Camp Nelson and 

150 



THE CAMPAIGN IN TENNESSEE 

the north at once, and in the afternoon of the 
7th we set out. About two hundred Con- 
federate prisoners were to be taken along. My 
shoes were in pretty good shape, but those of 
some of the boys were very poor. The 8th we 
made an early start. The air was clear and 
cold and we made a t good day's march. The 
ioth, we reached Cumberland Gap — were dis- 
appointed not to get any rations, but after pas- 
sing the gap and marching a few miles beyond, 
we came on to a supply train and drew two full 
days' rations. What a treat to have a meal of 
good fresh hardtack and a cup of good coffee 
again. The nth, we did not get far, we were 
delayed by the train. The roads in the moun- 
tains were something terrific. In many places 
we were obliged to cut ruts in the ice for the 
wheels of the wagons to go in. Forded the 
Cumberland River at Cumberland Ford. Pretty 
cold business fording large rivers in midwinter 
with the temperature down to 1 5 degrees above 
zero. 

January 12. Waited until noon for the train 
to come up. The train has delayed us all along 
the way. The roads are so very bad. Came 
upon a supply train and drew two days' rations. 

We reached Loudon, Kentucky, January 14. 
Here, some of the boys were able to get new 
shoes, to their great relief. It snowed all day 

151 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

the 15 th and at night we camped in deep 
snow. The next day the roads not having been 
broken out, we lost our way and floundered 
around all the forenoon. 

January 16. The home stretch. Made a 
long march of twenty-five or thirty miles in the 
rain, reaching Camp Nelson just before dark. 
Found our old Adjutant, Theron E. Hall, de- 
tailed there in command of the post. He put 
us in a big empty storehouse where we had a 
fine night's sleep. 

From the 17th of November to January 18th, 
a period of two months and one day, was a 
period in which we suffered more from priva- 
tion and exposure than any other period of the 
same length during the war. During the siege 
we were under fire and short of rations all the 
time. The next period up in the vicinity of 
Morristown and Blaine cross-roads we were on 
duty nearly all the time. It was very cold, 
We were very short of clothes and had almost 
nothing to eat. Then the tramp over the 
Cumberland mountains through the snow, with 
almost nothing to keep us warm for eleven 
days, was something terrific. The fact that 
we were on our way home was the only thing 
that buoyed us up during the last part of it. 
I am writing this at seventy-four years of age, 
and as I go over that march through the snow, 

152 



THE CAMPAIGN IN TENNESSEE 

fording great streams in midwinter on that trip 
across the mountains, I am entirely unable to 
comprehend how we were able to endure it. 
We had a very good opportunity to observe the 
Johnnies we were taking along at short range, 
and to get their viewpoint of the war. They 
were from Longstreet's command and while 
they had nothing but good to say of old Pete, 
Stonewall Jackson was their idol. He had been 
killed at Chancellorsville only a little while 
before and they felt his loss deeply. ' 'Stone- 
wall did a heap of praying — he do 'specially just 
before a big battle," said one. Another lean 
old fellow: '"Lowed Stonewall was a general, he 
war. If you-uns had a general like him, ar 
reckon you-uns could lick we-uns." One of 
them lamented that, "It was no use to fight, now 
old Stonewall war dead." One I asked what he 
was fighting for. " 'Cause I don't want to be 
licked. What you-all come down here for — 
to invade our country and run away with our 
niggers? You-uns must have a powerful spite 
against we-uns-all." In stature they averaged 
much smaller than our men, and they were 
very ignorant ; I doubt if one out of ten of them 
could write his name. 

January 19. We remained at Camp Nelson; 
drew clothing, ate hardtack and drank coffee 
to our heart's content and were as happy a lot 

153 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

of mortals as ever walked the earth. The 
next day we marched to Nicholasville and took 
a train for Covington. There was a hole in 
one of my teeth that had added measurably to 
my misery on the trip over the mountains. As 
we passed through Nicholasville, I saw the 
sign of a dentist. I walked in and sat down 
in the dentist's chair and told him I wished he 
would pull that tooth. He pulled it without 
any ceremony. When he put the forceps on to 
it, it rebelled fiercely, gave one final gasp and 
the maddening pain was ended. 

We were put into some very comfortable 
barracks at Covington and stayed there until 
the 29th while the necessary re-enlistment 
papers were being made out. I bought a very 
slick military jacket to wear home. We were 
paid off, and so started for home with a pocket 
full of money. 



154 



Chapter VIII 

HOME ON A RE-ENLISTMENT 
FURLOUGH 

The trip home. Reception at Worcester. The Social Whirl. We 
returned to Annapolis. 

WE left Cincinnati on our way home to 
Massachusetts in the afternoon of 
December 29th by train, going through 
Columbus, Cleveland, Buffalo, Albany and 
Springfield, arriving in Worcester in the morning 
of January 31st, and marched over to Camp 
Lincoln, which was to be regimental head- 
quarters during our stay. 

After we left Albany, as we passed along 
through the Berkshire Hills, we realized we were 
in the old Bay State again and that it was mid- 
winter. The ground was buried deeply under 
the snow and the air was cold. Wherever we 
stopped on our way east we were warmly re- 
ceived. At Worcester the reception was en- 
thusiastic. The 21st was the first three years' 
regiment to re-enlist in the 9th Army Corps. 
It was the first veteran regiment to return to 
Worcester County, and if not the first, it was 
one of the first, to return to the state. The 
people of Worcester appreciated this and turned 
out in large numbers to welcome us home. At 
155 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

the railroad station the mayor and a committee 
of citizens and a throng of people greeted us. 

The official reception February ist, was a most 
enthusiastic affair. A parade containing every 
organization of any size in the city was formed, 
with the mayor and city government at the 
head. We paraded the streets of the city; 
Plunkett marching beside the colors. Then in 
the afternoon there was a meeting in Mechanics 
Hall with speeches of welcome, etc. Our 
furloughs were for thirty days and were dated 
February ist. The next day we were off for our 
homes and a glorious vacation. I got as far 
as Barre the second, stayed all night at the 
hotel, and the next morning hired a team and 
drove over to Dana. The place looked natural 
and every one seemed happy. Riding about, 
visiting friends, attending reunions, dancing 
parties and balls, was now the order of the day 
and of the night. What a vacation! What a 
season of pleasure ! It was of its kind the most 
delightful time of my life. Nehemiah Double- 
day invited my sister Jane and I and a few 
other close personal friends up to his house for 
an evening. They had music, served refresh- 
ments, and we had a most delightful time, 
My sister, Mrs. Kent did the same thing, and 
there we spent another very enjoyable evening. 
The town of Hardwick gave an entertainment of 
156 



ON A RE-ENLISTMENT FURLOUGH 

welcome to the boys from that town in our 
regiment. I had worked for Mr. Arad Walker 
of that town and had a lot of friends over there, 
and so I was invited and went, and had a most 
royal time. Such cordiality on the part of the 
people. Such a warmth of welcome was en- 
tirely unexpected. Some one of those Hard wick 
men had his arm around me all the evening. 
I never got out of the sight of Mr. Walker while 
there. Every time I met Mr. John Paige he 
would put both his arms around me and give 
me a hug. Rev. Mr. Sanger could not have 
treated a son more cordially than he did me. 
Every man I met there, and I met a lot of them, 
treated me as if I was a son or a brother. As I 
went home that night I felt I was as much a 
son of Hard wick in the war as I was of Dana. 

When I enlisted and went out in 1861, I did 
it simply because I could not stay at home. 
When I went back at the end of my veteran 
furlough I felt I was one of the representatives 
at the front of a fine section of Massachusetts. 
On March 1st, our thirty days' furlough was at 
an end, and I returned to Worcester and to old 
Camp Lincoln again ready for duty. I was not 
wanted, however, and was told I could go home 
again and stay there until sent for, and home I 
went for another two weeks of pleasure, but all 
good things come to an end, so did that re-enlist- 
157 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

ment furlough, and the 14th I was summoned 
back to Worcester, the 15th found me with the 
regiment and the 18th we started south again. 
On the way back at Philadelphia the 19th we 
were given a fine supper at the Cooper Shop 
Saloon and the next morning at Baltimore we 
were treated to a fine breakfast at the Union 
Relief Association rooms. Proceeding on our 
way we arrived at Annapolis in the afternoon 
of March 25th. We went into camp and stayed 
there until we started to join the Army of the 
Potomac at the Wilderness. After the fine 
times we had had at home, ordinary camp life 
was decidedly dull. Troops were arriving 
daily and we soon learned the 9th Army Corps 
was assembling there preparatory to joining 
General Grant's army on the Rapidan. Every 
fellow had left a girl behind him. Writing 
letters was freely indulged in by all, and the mails 
were loaded with sweet-scented, delicately ad- 
dressed notes, and Oh, such longings for home. 



158 



Chapter IX 
WITH GRANT IN VIRGINIA 

The Battle of the Wilderness. The Battle of Spottsylvania Court- 
house. Johnnies caught undressed. The Battle of Bethseda Church. 
The Johnny who wanted to see the sun rise. Life in the trenches during 
the siege of Petersburg. Wounded. 

ON the 23d day of April, 1864, we again 
started for the front, leaving Annapolis 
with the rest of the 9th Army Corps. 
We passed through Washington on the 25th, 
and were reviewed by President Lincoln and 
General Burnside. That night we camped near 
Alexandria. On the 27th we marched to Fair- 
fax Court House; the 28th to Bristow Station. 
The 29th took us to near Warrenton Junction. 
The 30th we moved on a little and camped near 
Bealton Station. Here we remained until the 
4th of May, when we moved forward to Brandy 
Station. We were then getting into the im- 
mediate vicinity of the Army of the Potomac 
and the report was circulated during the even- 
ing that that army had crossed the Rapidan. 

May 5. The report that the Army of the 
Potomac was in motion and had crossed the 
Rapidan was confirmed early in the morning, 
and we pressed forward as rapidly as possible 
to join it. We reached the Rapidan in the 
evening, crossed over at Germania Ford and 
went into camp. 

159 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

May 6. We started before daylight and at 
eight o'clock reported to General Hancock, who 
had just been pushing Lee's right flank back. 
We were placed on the left of Hancock's corps. 
About ten o'clock, the 21st was sent to make a 
reconnaissance. We formed a line at right angles 
to Hancock's line of battle, well out in front of 
it, and swept clear along past the whole front. 
This was a hazardous and mighty unpleasant 
thing to do and we lost some men in doing it. 
When we got back, we took a position on 
Hancock's right and were there when Long- 
street's corps made the advance in the after- 
noon. That was a pretty tough reception, the 
Johnnies got in the part of the line where we 
were. We had three solid lines of battle to 
meet them, drawn up on land sloping toward 
the enemy. At the foot of the slope was the 
first line of battle; far enough back to shoot 
over the heads of the men forming line number 
one was line number two. The 21st was in the 
second line. Then far enough back to shoot 
over our heads was line number three. We 
were all lying flat on the ground. Two or 
three minutes before the Confederate line of 
battle came into view, in our immediate front, 
two or three little gray rabbits came jumping 
along towards us; at the same time we got 
glimpses of the Confederate line of battle as 

160 



WITH GRANT IN VIRGINIA 

it advanced off to our left, the wood being less 
dense there, we saw the lines cross little openings. 

The Johnnies came up with terrific force — 
three lines of battle deep. They forced back 
our first line a little, but the second and third 
lines never moved, but kept pouring the shot 
into them unmercifully. They stayed there 
about twenty minutes to half an hour and 
retreated. After they had fallen back many of 
us went down to our front earthwork, from which 
)ur first line retreated and where the Johnnies 
formed and where they stayed the few minutes 
chey were in our immediate front. There were 
a lot of dead and wounded men lying all about 
there. As I looked about I saw a middle-aged 
man looking around. He was examining the dead 
men in a most earnest way, I could not take my 
eyes off of him. Directly, he found the one he 
was searching for, it was a young boy, his son. 
He took hold of the boy's hand, he spoke to him, 
but his son was cold in death. He sat down 
beside him and sat there sobbing but motion- 
less for a long time — the tears streaming from 
his eyes. One of our boys ventured up to him 
after a while and inquired if he knew the boy; 
"yes, " said he, "that is my Charley, that is 
my cub; but he is silent now, once so full of 
life and so active. " 

May 7. There was no fighting done. We 
161 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

lay quietly near the place where the last fight- 
ing was done the day before. Early in the 
morning of May 8th, we started on the march 
toward Spottsylvania Court House. We 
passed Chancellorsville during the night and 
camped a little to the rear of Fredericksburg 
during the afternoon. We moved forward 
a little the 9th, and in the afternoon dug in- 
trenchments along beside a small stream, — 
I think it was the Ny. It was all quiet along 
our front when we reached that position, but 
later there was a good deal of sharpshooting. 
We were within a few hundred yards of Spott- 
sylvania Court House at that time, but neither 
Burnside or Grant knew it until we had been 
moved away to the right, and it was too late 
to profit by the advantage we had gained. We 
had got clear around on Lee's right flank. 
The 10th, during the early morning, we moved 
around to the right into a large pasture partly 
grown up. Sharpshooters were very active 
all along our front. General Stevenson was 
killed by a sharpshooter at that time. 

About daylight in the early morning of the 
12 th we were awakened by the bursting out of 
a fearful roar of infantry fire just to our right 
where the second corps was. We were moved 
along a little nearer to it, to the upper edge of a 
pasture next to some wood. While we were 

162 



WITH GRANT IN VIRGINIA 

there a shell burst right among a half dozen 
of us, a piece of which struck Lawriston Barnes 
in the side, mortally wounding him. Augustus, 
his brother, stood near and caught him as he 
reeled to fall. Volunteers were called for to go 
up into the wood and make a reconnaissance. 
Tom Winn offered to go and went, and in a few 
minutes he returned, bringing with him a 
Johnny. A little later we moved up through 
the wood and made an attack on some Johnnies 
in an entrenched position in an open field, but 
we did not drive them out; they had the ad- 
vantage of a strong position and our force was 
too small to make such an attack with any 
prospect of success. As we went up through the 
wood we passed a Johnny who was killed while 
aiming his gun. He was lying flat on the ground 
behind a stump. His head had dropped forward 
a little, but otherwise he was in the exact 
position of aiming his gun; he had been shot 
through the head and killed instantly. He 
was evidently one of the sharpshooters who had 
been annoying us that morning when we were 
in the edge of the pasture where Lawriston 
Barnes was killed. 

That engagement of Hancock's corps at the 
salient, called also the "bloody angle" has gone 
into history as one of the most desperate engage- 
ments of the Civil War. We remained in the 

163 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

immediate vicinity until the 19th, when we were 
moved away to the left, to the extreme left of 
the army, I think, and threw up a lot of earth- 
works. We lay quietly near our earthworks 
all day the 20th. The next day about the 
middle of the afternoon we started for the North 
Anna River, marching all night and all the 
next day through a most beautiful section of the 
country and camping at night near Bowling 
Green. The 23d we approached the North 
Anna River in the afternoon. The roar of the ar- 
tillery just ahead of us steadily increased until 
it became perfectly terrific. It was the first 
time during the campaign the artillery of either 
army had had an opportunity to make itself 
heard. Again, the artillery of the two armies 
was separated from each other by a good-sized 
river; each thus felt perfectly safe, and they 
barked away to their hearts' content. Just before 
we turned into the field to camp for the night, 
a cannon ball fired by the Johnnies at our artil- 
lery on the hill ahead of us, struck the hill, then 
bounded along down and finally rolled along the 
road among the feet of the horses of a regiment 
of cavalry that was passing us — we having moved 
to the side of the road to let them pass. The way 
those horses jumped around there indicated 
distinctly that they knew what it was, and that 
they did not like the looks of it a bit. 
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WITH GRANT IN VIRGINIA 

May 24. During the middle of the forenoon 
we were moved down on to an island in the river 
with another regiment, expecting to make a 
charge across that part of the river on the 
Johnnies' works on the other side. We stayed 
there a few hours, then returned without attempt- 
ing any advance. In the middle of the after- 
noon we moved up the river a little way and 
crossed at Quarles Ford. 

May 25. On picket duty out on the bank of 
a small stream. Captured two Johnnies. I 
was on the picket line. We were placed quite 
a distance apart, so I was entirely alone. The 
bank of the stream was quite high, I being some 
twenty feet higher than the river and about 
ten or twelve yards from it. I saw the Johnnies 
approaching me on the other side of the river 
when some thirty or forty yards away. They 
were sauntering along, their right hands hold- 
ing a number of canteens, their left hands 
their guns. I was lying behind the trunk of a 
fallen tree. I kept perfectly quiet until they 
were about twenty or thirty feet from the other 
side of the river, when I ordered them to throw 
down their guns. They dropped them in- 
stantly. Then I ordered them to come in, which 
they did without hesitation. They forded the 
stream, clambered up the bank, and as they 
reached the top, stood still and apparently took 
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CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

in the situation. They were men about thirty 
years old, one a medium-sized man, the other a 
large man, five feet, ten inches or six feet tall. 
I think they felt a little awkward as they 
discovered they had surrendered to a mere 
boy. - The larger one took a fancy to my gun and 
stepped forward as if expecting me to hand it 
to him for examination. I brought my gun 
down to the charge, cocked it, and told him to 
keep his distance or I should shoot. The smaller 
man took hold of the other, pulled him back and 
said to him, "Don't go near him, he'll shoot 
you." "You may be sure I shall," said I. 
Then I started them to the rear, keeping about 
a rod and a half behind them. When I reached 
headquarters the colonel came out of his tent 
and came up to me and said, "What have you 
been up to, Mad.?" An officer stuck his 
head out of a nearby tent and shouted, "Why 
didn't you bring in the whole regiment while 
you were about it?" Another called out, "Tell 
us how you did it, Mad." Another answered 
back, "Ah, he surrounded them." And so 
they had quite a bit of good-natured fun at my 
expense. Well, a corporal and guard came 
and took charge of the Rebs and I went back to 
my place on the picket line again. 

May 26. We recrossed to the north side of 
the river and went back to near Oxford and went 

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WITH GRANT IN VIRGINIA 

into bivouac. The army was on the move and 
we were doing picket duty. I was way off in 
the wood, apparently all alone and there was 
not another picket within fifteen rods of me. I 
was lying down behind the trunk of a tree some 
twenty to twenty-four inches through at the 
base. All at once I saw a Johnny coming down 
through the wood. He was coming directly 
toward me, coming along quietly, glancing now 
to the right, then to the left. I let him ap- 
proach to within about three or four rods of me 
when I ordered him to drop his gun. He dropped 
it and came in. He was a big six-footer with 
a big, black beard eight or ten inches long. 
I took him back to headquarters, turned him 
over to the officer of the day and went back to 
my post again. This was great luck for me. In 
two consecutive days I had, entirely alone and 
unaided, captured three Johnnies, — two at one 
time and one at the other; and they were the 
only men I captured unaided during the whole 
war. 

May 27. Some of our boys had a little fun 
with some Johnnies that morning. The John- 
nies shot across the river and killed a cow that 
belonged to a farmer living nearby. Then 
they stripped off their clothes and swam the 
river, intending to have a good cut of beef for 
dinner. As soon as they were over the river 
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CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

our boys appeared, took them prisoners and 
marched them off to headquarters just as they 
were. The armies had both gone. We were 
the pickets of the rear guard. We had been 
keeping very quiet in the wood, and the 
Johnnies probably thought we had all gone. 
Well, they did not have meat for dinner and we 
did. About noon we left the North Anna and 
followed on after the army. The 28th we 
marched all day and most of the night, but 
during the night the marching was less steady, 
the artillery that was ahead of us was obliged 
to repair the roads in two or three placed which 
caused delays. During those halts the boys 
would, every one of them in two minutes after 
the halt was made, be lying beside the road 
fast asleep. On a long, hard march there is 
always more or less straggling and those fellows 
once behind may have quite a little trouble in 
finding their regiments again; but they go 
straggling along inquiring for their regiments, 
brigades or perhaps their army corps, etc. 
Well, that night as we were lying beside the 
road asleep, an officer came along — a very im- 
portant and very arrogant fellow — he woke up 
Tom and asked what regiment that was. Tom 
rubbed his eyes, looked about and shouted 
loud enough to be heard a quarter of a mile, 
"The 279th Rhode Island." A little way off 
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WITH GRANT IN VIRGINIA 

another fellow piped up, "That is a blasted lie, 
this is the 119th Ireland;" the officer made no 
reply but moved on. 

In this campaign there is firing going on 
somewhere along the line most of the time. For 
any one who has not been in a real hard cam- 
paign, it is impossible to imagine what life is 
like there — especially nights. If near the enemy 
thus being unable to have any fire with which 
to cook a cup of coffee, having nothing to 
drink but cold water and nothing to eat but 
hardtack with perhaps a slice of salt pork. A 
roar of musket fire along the picket line giv- 
ing one a start and waking him up, stragglers 
tumbling over you or waking you up to inquire 
for their regiments, sleeping on the ground per- 
haps in a rain-storm are all in the regular order 
of experience. On the 30th of May we reached 
Cold Harbor, we were advanced into a position 
near Shady Grove and told to throw up some 
earthworks. The pickets seemed only a few 
steps in front of us and were firing away like 
mad; the bullets coming over where we were 
altogether too thick for comfort. May 31. 
We stayed in that position all day and that night 
I was detailed on picket. About midnight I 
went on duty, we went down across a large field 
and clear down on the farther side, relieved the 
pickets in little holes they had dug to conceal 

169 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

themselves in. There were spades there and 
before daylight we had increased the size of the 
holes so they were fair-sized rifle pits. When 
that line was established it was done just 
about as badly as it could be. It was placed 
clear on the farther edge of a large field about 
four or six rods from the edge of the wood, the 
Johnnies' line of pickets being in the edge of the 
wood. About ten o'clock the officer of the day 
appeared about thirty or forty rods to the rear 
and signaled for me to go back and get orders. 
I was acting sergeant at the time and had com- 
mand of the pickets of that part of the line. I 
went back to him, got my orders and returned 
to my post again. That was the most perilous 
duty that fell to me to perform all alone during 
my whole service. As I went back I was a 
single mark for from a dozen to fifteen Rebs 
for a run of fifteen rods, and on my return just 
the same again, and that time I was running 
directly toward them. 

It was a common thing in those days to hear 
the bullets zip past one, but a thing occurred 
then that was new to me. It was a plowed 
field I was crossing and as the bullets struck 
the ground they would kick up a little dust. 
I remember distinctly seeing those miniature 
clouds of dust three or four times on those runs. 

As near as I can judge I was fired at about 
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WITH GRANT IN VIRGINIA 

twelve or fifteen times each way, but I escaped 
without a scratch. Had they had some decent 
shots there I would have been shot into mince- 
meat and why I was not is a thing I have never 
been able to understand. Some of our boys 
in the rifle pits declared they heard the Johnnies 
clap as I jumped down into the rifle pit on my 
return. Well, in the middle of the afternoon 
when I received the signal to fall back I gave 
the order, but not more than half the men 
struck out, — the remainder preferring to re- 
main there and be taken prisoners rather, than 
take the risk of that run across the field. When 
I got back fifteen or twenty rods I turned and 
looked back. The Rebs were taking those 
of our boys that remained, out of the rifle pits. 
We now formed a skirmish line and fell slowly 
back. The Confederates formed their skirmish 
line and began to follow us up. The retreat 
down to Bethseda Church, a distance of about 
three or four miles, was most exciting, the 
Johnnies following us up pretty closely." But 
once in a while we would make a stand. Then 
they would bring up their artillery, and lines of 
infantry would swing into place. Then we 
would quietly drop back again. When we 
reached the vicinity of Bethseda Church there 
were lines of battle everywhere. We were 
ordered back to the rear of the lines and were 

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CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

then sent to our regiments. The 21st was quite 
a little way off to the left. Emmons had just 
been killed when I found the regiment. Marcus 
Emmons was a Hard wick boy. He was an 
awkward, unsoldierly appearing man, but he 
was a man of considerable intellectual ability 
and a man of splendid character ; and, so far as 
I ever saw, he was as brave as the bravest, 
without any show or parade, but always did 
his duty faithfully. Had he been possessed 
of a fine soldierly figure and bearing, he could 
just as well have held a commission as lieu- 
tenant-colonel or colonel as to have been a 
sergeant. 

That night we camped right near the battle- 
field, and early the next morning I got up and 
started to take a walk over the field out near 
the Confederate battery where so many horses 
were killed. I found a live Johnny; there were 
a number of dead men lying about among the 
caissons and dead horses, but one I saw moved. 
I went up to him and greeted him and asked 
him if he was badly wounded. "Yes, " said he, 
"I guess it is all up with me." He was lying 
flat on his back and appeared to be unable to 
move, gazing up into the sky, his eyes were 
restless and rolling. He had been shot through 
the body and his spinal column had been injured, 
I think. All but his hands seemed paralyzed, 

172 



WITH GRANT IN VIRGINIA 

those he could use a little. I inquired if I 
could do anything for him. "Yes," said he, 
"I wish you would turn me over on to my side 
so I can see the sun rise." The sun was just 
about to appear over the eastern horizon. I 
turned him over on to his side, then I found a 
canteen and went to get a canteen of water for 
him. When I got back fifteen minutes later 
the poor fellow was dead. He had fallen asleep 
to awake, I trust, to a more glorious sunrise 
than that early sunrise of June 3d, 1864. 

From the 2d to the 12th of June the 21st was 
not seriously engaged. There was more or less 
fighting along the line, but it was not our for- 
tune to be in it. 

In the evening of June 12th, we left Cold 
Harbor and in the evening of June 14th we 
were at Charles City on the James. We crossed 
the river on a pontoon bridge about midnight 
of the 15 th and started for Petersburg as fast 
as we could go, arriving there late in the after- 
noon. It was on this march I fell out, the first 
and only time I every fell out on a march. My 
shoes were worn so badly they hardly protected 
my feet at all and they galled me murderously. 
I fell out beside a brook, gave my feet a good 
bath, made a cup of coffee, took a little rest and 
then went on, coming up with the regiment 
during the evening. The boys were engaged 
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CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

at about six o'clock when the 9th and 2d 
Corps made the first attack on Petersburg. 1 
Our boys drove the Johnnies from the first line 
of works, and the next morning when we moved 
forward we found the next line abandoned. 
During the night we moved to the right and 
forward preparing for another advance at day- 
break. When we advanced the morning of the 
17th, I was on the picket line; as we passed a 
deserted line of earthworks I saw a dead Johnny 
lying in one of the trenches. He had an open 
letter in his hand, I took the letter from his life- 
less fingers folded it and put it in my pocket, 
when I had a chance to read it I discovered it 
was from his sweetheart at home in Georgia. 
He had evidently thought of her when he found 
himself mortally wounded, had taken the letter 
from his pocket and died while reading it. 

There were two more incomplete lines of 
works in our front. We hoped to take both 
these lines, but being unsupported we succeeded 
in taking only one. During the day some re- 
inforcements arrived and a regiment was put 
right in front of us; we thus had two lines of 
battle with which to advance, they going ahead. 
In the early evening the order came to advance. 
The regiment in front of us that was to take the 
lead never moved a peg, and we were obliged 
to charge right over them. On each of our 
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WITH GRANT IN VIRGINIA 

flanks there were good strong lines, so being well 
supported on both sides we captured both lines. 
Some distance to our right our men were less 
successful, they did not take the last line, and 
soon began to draw regiment after regiment 
from our force, until we were so spread out to 
cover the line, we did not have more than one 
man to each six feet. A continuous fight was 
kept up until about midnight, when our am- 
munition running low, our firing became slack. 
The Johnnies doubtless noticed that, made an 
advance and we were forced back to the second 
line again. As we left those works two things 
occurred that are worth mentioning. In front 
of us was a wood, directly in front the wood 
came up to within fifteen or twenty feet of our 
works. To the left the space between the breast- 
works and the wood was much greater. So as 
the Johnnies advanced they came in sight in the 
open space to the left first, and I fired at them 
there. Then I set to work to load my gun; 
but before it was finished they were coming out 
of the wood and across the narrow space right 
in front of me. I put on a cap and fired at a 
man only a few feet away with my ramrod still 
in my gun. The Johnny was doubled up. I 
think my ramrod hit him right in the stomach. 
Then I skipped for the rear. The regimental 
colors were a little way to my right. Captain 
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CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

Sampson was right near them. Three Rebs 
started for our colors about the time I shot 
my ramrod into the Johnny. Captain Samp- 
son jumped up on to our works and cut one of 
them down with his sword. The other two 
retreated. Then Captain Sampson and the 
few men there were remaining with the colors 
also fell back. I hunted about and got 
me a couplete gun and I found a dead man 
with some cartridges in his cartridge box. 
These I appropriated. So I was all right again. 
In the early morning of the 18th preparations 
were made for another advance; but when the 
pickets went forward they found the works 
we had captured and lost the night before were 
deserted. The Johnnies had fallen back about 
a mile to a shorter line of works nearer the city. 
The next night we moved up to a desirable 
position at an average distance of one hundred 
and fifty yards from their works, and com- 
menced putting up earthworks for siege pur- 
poses. During the next ten days it was re- 
markable to see how the fortifications appeared. 
They sprung into existence as if by magic. 
The 9th Army Corps was the second from the 
Appomattox River; Hancock with his corps 
being on our right. And thus we came into 
position in front of Cemetery Hill. As we lay 
there about four hundred feet from the crest 

176 



WITH GRANT IN VIRGINIA 

of the ridge, there was a little to our left a 
slight elevation, a little knoll. On this promi- 
nence the Confederates located a six-gun bat- 
tery, which was known as Elliott's salient. 
It was this battery that was destined later to 
be undermined and blown up. 

Two nearly parallel lines of intrenchments 
were laid out for the infantry, varying from 150 
to 300 yards apart. At first most of the work 
had to be done at night under the cover of dark- 
ness. But later on after the works were under 
way and we had got our bearings we could plan 
to work during the day. The top of the in- 
trenchments were finished in such a way as to 
cover one's head when firing. We were fur- 
nished with bags. These we filled with dirt and 
piled up on top in such a way as to make loop- 
holes through which to fire. Fortifications for 
the artillery had also to be built. They were 
located on the more elevated parts of the field 
and on a line with, or to the rear of, the second 
line of intrenchments of the infantry. It was 
soon arranged so the troops in the two lines 
alternated each other, each taking his turn for 
three days in the front line and then having 
three days in the second line. But in the matter 
of danger the difference was slight. The lines 
were so near together and both so near the 
Confederate works, the men in either were 
177 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

within easy range of the enemies' sharpshooters. 
The men in the second line, however, had some 
advantages. They could have a little cover- 
ing over their heads to keep off the blazing 
rays of the sun. They could also take off their 
accoutrements and unloosen their clothes at 
night and so get a little better rest. While in 
the front line no covering as a protection 
against the sun could be used. One must keep 
his accoutrements on, and his musket, if he 
laid it down, must be within his reach. 

In addition to the regular intrenchments 
for the infantry and forts for the artillery, 
there were, just to the rear of the first line of 
breastworks, passages connecting the different 
intrenchments and batteries. These were about 
six feet deep and eight or ten feet wide; they 
ran everywhere. With these and the regular 
breastworks the ground was completely honey- 
combed. In front of our breastwork was a 
ditch, an abatis and a line of barbed wire en- 
tanglement. The Confederate and our lines 
were so near together that every possible 
thing was resorted to, to prevent being sur- 
prised or to check an advancing line of battle. 
A view across the field was peculiar, not a man 
could be seen. Lines of abatis, barbed- wire 
fences, piles of earth with the black noses of can- 
non projecting out between them, was about all 

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WITH GRANT IN VIRGINIA 

one could see. In the course of ten days after 
our lines were established we were pretty well 
dug in, so the ordinary rifle of the infantry, the 
field artillery and even the siege guns, did not 
disturb us much. The mortars, however, we did 
not like ; the shells from them, we had not, at the 
time I was wounded, learned to avoid. Later 
on, bomb proofs were built back of the second 
line ; these the boys could get into when off duty 
and be protected. Life in the trenches was 
dreary and trying, although in ways interest- 
ing. The Johnnies did not keep up a con- 
tinuous fire, but once in a while they would 
throw over a dozen or twenty shells, apparently 
to stir us up to see how we liked it. 

One day, four of the boys in the second line 
were sitting on a blanket playing pitch, when, 
with a terrific whiz and shriek, down came a 
mortar shell and buried itself in the earth with- 
in three feet of one of them. The way those boys 
rolled and tumbled over each other to get out of 
the way of that shell, was interesting to see, but 
it only gave them a start ; it did not burst and 
no one was hurt. 

Weren't, we indignant one noon? The cook 
had just brought up from the rear a kettle full 
of fine smoking hot baked beans. He had just 
set them down and stepped back a pace or two, 
the boys were all skurrying around getting 

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CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

their plates so no one was very near, a shell 
came down and burst right beside that kettle 
of beans and knocked it all to atoms. One 
boy who was some ten or twelve feet away 
was hit in the side by a piece of the shell. It cut 
a groove out of his side as clean as a gouge 
cuts a groove from a piece of wood. An 
amusing thing happened the other night over a 
little way to our left where they were using pack 
mules for working squads. A mule loaded and 
bristling with shovels, picks and axes, broke 
loose from his company and, with fearful clatter, 
went charging fearless and alone. The Rebs, 
believing they were being charged upon by our 
cavalry, were for an instant in confusion, but 
got into their works and opened fire on our 
friend with long ears. The mule not liking 
that kind of a reception whirled about and 
came cantering back to his comrades again. 
As the mule came prancing back, it dawned 
upon the Johnnies what had really happened 
and they began to laugh, our boys hearing them 
joined in and for an instant a perfect roar of 
laughter and shouts rang along both lines. In 
that way, under those conditons the siege went 
on; under those conditions we lived. To stay 
in those trenches in that terrific heat, with not 
a breath of fresh air, in the dirt — for every 
spear of grass had early disappeared — was a 

1 80 



WITH GRANT IN VIRGINIA 

thing only the most hardy could endure. I early 
formed the habit when we were in the second 
line, of rising a little while before daylight in 
the morning and going down to a little stream 
in our rear and taking a bath. And it was while 
returning from one of those trips, the morning 
having got a little advanced, I was hit by a 
sharpshooter. The ball passed through my 
left thigh about half way from my hip to my 
knee, passing just behind the bone from the 
right side to the left. I crawled back to a place 
of cover. Then some of the boys came with a 
stretcher and carried me back to the place where 
the ambulances were kept. From there I was 
taken in an ambulance back to the hospital, 
in the rear of the fighting line some mile and a 
half or two miles away. 

Along most of the line there was little picket 
firing. Men moved about exposing themselves 
to considerable extent. But in front of the 
9th Army Corps there was continuous firing 
from the beginning. The third division of 
the 9th Army Corps was a division of negro 
troops. The Confederates knew this and re- 
sented it and in this way took their revenge, 
although the negro division was not present 
until after the mine explosion. 



181 



Chapter X 
LIFE IN THE HOSPITAL 

That ride in the ambulance. Emory Hospital. The woman with my 
Mother's name. The dreadful death rate. President Lincoln's Second 
Inauguration. Booth's Ride. Doing clerical work in Philadelphia. 
Discharged. 

JULY 30, 1863, my twenty-third birthday, 
found me in a field hospital a little way to 
the rear of the 9th Army Corps, whither 
I had been taken the day before after being 
wounded. 

About daybreak we heard the report caused 
by the mine explosion, and then the roar of the 
artillery that followed. Early in the forenoon 
a train of ambulances was loaded with wounded 
men, I among them, and taken to City Point 
to make room for the wounded they were hourly 
expecting to be brought from the front. The 
ride from the hospital to City Point was most 
trying. The ambulances went rolling and 
jolting along across trackless fields the whole 
way. My wound bled a good deal and pained 
me badly, but I bore it quietly, my companion 
in the ambulance being apparently so much 
worse off than I. He complained and moaned 
dreadfully until we were near City Point when 
he became quiet and remained so for the rest 
of the journey. 

When we reached the hospital at City Point, 
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LIFE IN THE HOSPITAL 

a man came and helped me out of the ambulance 
and into the hospital. At the same time two 
men took out my companion. He had to be 
lifted bodily out, his form was rigid and cold — 
he was dead. Then I understood why at a 
certain time on the way his moaning had 
ceased. My wound was dressed, I had a bath, 
a nurse brought me a plate of soup and I felt 
very much refreshed. 

August i. Notice was given in the tent where 
I was that a boat was at the wharf down at 
the river to take to Washington all wounded men 
who could get down to the wharf and get aboard 
the boat. I told one of the nurses that if I had 
a pair of crutches I thought I could get down 
there. She got me the crutches and I set out. 
I had not gone many rods when my head began 
to spin around and I began to feel very strange. 
I stopped and stood still for a moment, then 
who should pass by right in front of me but 
Alf Rider, a Company K man. I shouted, 
"Alf!" He looked around, saw who it was, 
came back and helped me down to the boat. 
He then went and got a canteen of water and 
brought it to me. Wounded men were coming 
aboard all the afternoon. By seven o'clock 
the boat was crowded and we started for 
Washington where we arrived the next after- 
noon. On the way we had no food, but water 

183 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

we had. My neighbors, none of whom had 
any canteen, all used mine, and between us we 
emptied it a number of times. But one of the 
boat men, a fine fellow, did not allow it to re- 
main empty long at a time. He kept us sup- 
plied with water and we got along very well. 

As soon as we reached Washington I was 
taken in an ambulance and carried to Emory 
Hospital and placed in Ward 4. Doctor 
Ensign, a New York physician, had charge of 
the ward. A Mr. Gage, a medical student from 
Massachusetts, was wound dresser and took 
care of my wound. I had been in the hospital 
only about a week when the erysipelas developed 
in my wound, and August 9th I was taken to 
the erysipelas ward. This ward was under the 
charge of a Dr. Bates, of Worcester, Mass. 
Dr. Bates and his assistants had no trouble in 
quieting down that erysipelas, and on August 
30th, I was taken back to Ward 4 again. What 
horrible care my wound received! It was 
dressed only once a day and then so badly. 
September 16, gangrene broke out in it and I 
was taken to the gangrene ward. 

This ward was under the charge of the same 
physician as the erysipelas ward — Dr. Henry 
Green Bates of Worcester, Mass. Dr. Bates' 
wife was a Brookfield Stone, and she, seeing my 
diagnosis card, discovered that my mother's 
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LIFE IN THE HOSPITAL 

name and her maiden name were identical. 
Although no near relationship could be estab- 
lished, it created a friendly interest, and Dr. 
Bates took care of my wound himself, dressing 
it twice a day until the gangrene was out, which 
was in just six days. But I was not then sent 
back to Ward 4. I was made comfortable in a 
private tent and remained under his care until 
February, 1865, during which time the Doctor 
and Mrs. Bates kept me supplied with news- 
papers and books to read and delicacies to eat. 

Early in February, Dr. Bates left Emory 
Hospital, going to Newport News to take charge 
of a hospital being built to take care of the 
wounded expected when the campaign should 
open at Petersburg, and I was sent back to 
Ward 4. 

The critical period of three months with me, 
from August to December, 1864, I was cared 
for by Dr. Bates, and to him I owe my life. 
Had I been obliged to remain in Ward 4, through 
those three critical months, I should not have 
survived. The work of the wound dresser, I 
always thought, was very inferior. The food 
was fairly good and we had plenty of it. We 
also had plenty of stimulants — a little bottle 
of brandy and. a bottle of porter every day. 

There must have been a large number of 
badly wounded men on the boat that took me 

185 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

to Washington. For a while the long roll was 
heard so often at that hospital carrying out 
the dead, it was abolished, the effect was so 
depressing. 

When I was taken back to Ward 4, at the 
time Dr. Bates left, Dr. Ensign learned that 
Dr. Bates and his wife had formed something 
of an attachment for me and that I had been 
a sort of special patient over there. I was, 
consequently, ever afterward treated with a 
good deal of kindness by him and so got through 
the rest of the time I was in the hospital very 
comfortably. It was depressing to note the 
change that had taken place in Ward 4 during 
my absence in Dr. Bates' ward. When I went 
into Ward 4, it was full to crowding. On my 
return, less than half the beds were occupied, 
more than half the patients having died. 

In the ambulance that carried me from the 
boat to the hospital was a man who must have 
been in great pain. He complained bitterly. 
He was wounded in the foot. The day after 
we got to the hospital his foot was amputated. 
In a few days a piece of his leg was cut off, 
and again his knee was sacrificed, and inside of 
two weeks he was a dead man. The gangrene 
was in his foot when we got to the hospital and 
as soon as an amputation was performed it 
would break out in the new wound made. He 

186 



LIFE IN THE HOSPITAL 

was a Connecticut man, married. His wife 
came on and was with him during the last days 
he lived and took his body home with her. 

A Michigan man used to excite my sympathy. 
He was wounded in the right shoulder and the 
bones of that joint were knocked all to pieces. 
The upper part of the humerus, a part of the 
clavicle and a part of the scapula had been 
removed. He was a great broad-shouldered, 
six-foot-six man, and to see that Hercules 
pacing up and down the ward — for he could 
not keep still — his arm in a sling and holding 
it up or steadying it with his left hand as best 
he could, the wounded shoulder still hanging 
way down — was a most pitiable sight. 

The day after I got to the hospital I noticed 
a bed away by itself in one corner of the ward, 
with a large frame over it covered with mosquito 
netting, and I soon saw things which indicated 
that there was a wounded man there. On in- 
quiry, I learned there was a man in there lying 
at the point of death. The doctors did not 
expect him to live and they were just trying to 
make his last hours as comfortable as they 
could. He was a German by birth and belonged 
to a New York regiment. He had been hit 
in the thorax, the ball passing through from side 
to side piercing the bones on both sides and 
going through a portion containing vital parts. 
187 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

When I was taken to the erysipelas ward he 
was still alive, and when I came back, the 
wound dresser thought he had begun to mend. 
When I returned to the ward in February, he 
was able to get around on crutches, and when I 
left the hospital in May he could walk without 
his crutches. He was not very elastic on his 
feet to be sure, and it was pretty funny walk- 
ing. He walked on the end of his feet and toes, 
his heels being up in the air — but he could 
balance himself and get around quite a little. 
This was regarded in the hospital as a remark- 
able cure and it was attributed to the remark- 
able vitality of the man. 

During the first weeks I was in the hospital, 
when the ward was full of wounded men, many 
of them seriously wounded, it would be expected 
there would be considerable noise. To the 
contrary there was almost no noise at all. One 
almost never heard a moan and the attendants 
wore slippers with felt bottoms, so they moved 
about making hardly the slightest noise. 

Dr. Ensign, the doctor who had charge of 
Ward 4, was a New York doctor. In addition 
to his having the" care of Ward 4, he was oper- 
ating surgeon of the whole hospital. He and 
Dr. Bates, I think, were the two principal 
physicians there. Dr. Bates, as already stated, 
had charge of the two worst wards — the 

188 



LIFE IN THE HOSPITAL 

gangrene ward and the erysipelas ward. Dr. 
Moseley, the head "doctor, was, I think, just a 
figure head. He never did anything and was 
seldom seen about the hospital. 

By the first of March I was on crutches and 
able to get around pretty well. So desiring to 
hear the President deliver his inaugural ad- 
dress on the 4th of March, I, early in the fore- 
noon, went down to the Capitol, got into a 
good position on the east side to see and hear 
Mr. Lincoln. I stayed there, heard the ad- 
dress, saw the sun burst out on Mr. Lincoln. 
The throng came, the famous Second Inaugural 
Address was given, the throng melted away, 
and I returned to the hospital again. When 
evening came I went over to the White House 
to a public reception, fell into line, and passed 
around and shook hands with Mr. Lincoln. He 
seemed to be in the best of spirits. 

April 10. The daily papers announced the 
welcome news of the surrender of General 
Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia. The 
surrender had taken place the afternoon before 
at Appomattox Court House, Virginia. It was 
the signal for the display of the greatest en- 
thusiasm. In a short time salutes began to be 
fired, and every fortification and every battery 
in the vicinity of Washington fired a national 
salute. We boys in the hospital climbed up on 
189 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

to the top of the wards ; from there we could see 
the smoke shoot out from the top of every hill 
in sight, and the roar of the artillery was like 
a great battle. 

After Lee's surrender, the period of national 
rejoicing was destined to be short, and termi- 
nated in a most abrupt and tragical manner — 
the assassination of President Lincoln. 

My own personal experience on that event- 
ful night of April 14th and 15th had in it 
an element of interest. The road from the 
quarter of the city where Ford's Theatre stood, 
to the Navy Yard bridge across the Anacostia 
River near the Navy Yard, passed quite near 
one corner of Emery Hospital, which was laid 
out in the form of a square. I was quartered 
at that time in a tent that stood at the corner 
near the road, and heard a man ride past at 
great speed going in the direction of the Navy 
Yard bridge. It was an uncommon thing for 
any one to pass along that road at night and it 
attracted my attention. A few moments elapsed 
and a squad of cavalry rode past like the wind. 
That aroused me again and I called the atten- 
tion of the night watchman to it. "Oh, you've 
been dreaming," said he, "go to sleep." But 
I could not go to sleep, I was sure something 
out of the ordinary had happened. A little 
after midnight the news was brought to the 

190 



LIFE IN THE HOSPITAL 

hospital that the President had been assas- 
sinated. I was then confident that it was 
Booth I had heard ride past the hospital, and 
later reports proved my conclusion to be true. 

Early in May I was transferred to the veteran 
Reserve Corps and assigned to a company in 
Philadelphia and then was detailed to the 
adjutant-general's office of the state of Penn- 
sylvania do do clerical work, and stayed there 
until I was discharged in July. The work 
amounted to very little; an occasional hour's 
work was all I had to do. 

The captain of the company of the Veteran 
Reserve Corps to which I belonged, Buckley 
by name, was a specimen. He was a typical 
Irish politician with all the bluster and swagger 
of that class. He was associated with the 
sutler and was, all in all, one of the most un- 
savory specimens to be found anywhere. 

In July, I received a notice from the adjutant- 
general of Massachusetts that my regiment 
had been mustered out of the service of the 
United States, and on the 2 2d, I was paid off, 
mustered out of service and returned home. 
Thus ended my four years and six days' serv- 
ice during the Civil War, and thus end these 
recollections which have assumed proportions 
quite surprising, considering what was con- 
templated at the outset. 

191 



CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 

In studying the history of the Revolutionary 
War, I have often wished I could read the diary 
of a private soldier of that time, that I might 
form an impression of the life of the soldier 
in the ranks during that war. 

If, some day, a student should come along who 
is interested in the history of the Civil War, and 
who would like to know something more about 
it than just the main facts, which is all the 
histories usually give, it is hoped that these 
recollections will be of assistance to him in that 
respect. 

Few soldiers, too, had so varied an experience 
as fell to the lot of the writer. Again, it has 
been a source of genuine pleasure to think over 
the old campaigns, with their diversity of ex- 
periences, and put what I have been able to 
call to mind into readable form. 

James Madison Stone. 

Boston, January, 1918. 



tf D 12. « 



192 



My task is done, my song hath ceased, my theme 

Has died into an echo it is fit 
The spell should break, of this protracted dream. 

The torch shall be extinguished which hath lit 
My midnight lamp and what is writ is writ. 

Would it were worthier but I am not now 
That which I have been, and my visions flit 

Less palpably before me and the glow 
Which in my spirit dwelt is fluttering faint and low. 
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. 
Canto 185. Lord Byron. 



193 



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